A Whisper in the Darkness
by NMarr
Summary: "Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty?" It was worth it. All of it. She was one of them now.
1. Old Faces, New Problems

I don't own any characters belonging to DC Universe I only own the idea of Whisper.

Please Review!

Story takes place during Bruce Wayne's apparent Death.

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_**A Whisper in the Darkness**_

"Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty." –Earl Wilson "This whisper which is heard by him alone." -Ralph Waldo Emerson A secret is not something unrevealed, but something told privately, in a whisper. -Marcel Pagnol _

"Any robberies? Breakouts? Ok what about Damian? Come on Babs help me out here!" Dick Grayson couldn't stand these stupid society "balls" any more! For once he just wanted to suit-up and dive into the streets of Gotham. This was downright torture. Dick admired Bruce for this too. _Bruce._ Amazing how much time had past but is still hurt him to think of his adoptive father. He wouldn't think about this here. "Or what about that cake recipe you promised me?"

"Sorry short pants but you're out of luck and I never promised anything. I just said that you guys never call just to say hi or ask for a recipe! Besides, I'm sure blonde Barbie and her friends are just happy to see you pixie boots!" Barbara responded

"But Babs! Alfred made me come, don't you have anything I can do!" Whined the Dark Knight. Oracle started typing ferociously.

"You're such a baby Grayson. Ah, here we go. Alfred wants you back. I don't think Damian did anything, but looks like you're need as Dick, not Batman." Dick sighed.

"Good enough for me. Later good-looking. And by the way, I prefer redheads." He smiled and closed his communicator. Babs always made him feel good. But what could Alfred want; after all Alfred's the one who urged him to go saying it was "your duties Master Richard as the Heir to Wayne enterprises." Besides, since Dick had taken up the role as Batman they'd all move to the Penthouse and the Batbunker. Dick shrugged and hurried to his car.

It was a quick drive to the Wayne Manor but he had to remind himself not to go in the cave. Stephanie Brown was here. Did Alfred want all three of them together? He had a feeling this wasn't the ordinary Wayne family dinner.

"Alfred I'm here!" He yelled. That was odd. Alfred was always by his side asking him all kinds of questions.

"Geez Dick did you stop by Metropolis? Since when does it take that long to get here?"

"Yes, we were worried." Dick stopped dead in his tracks. Tim and Cassandra were sitting by Alfred, Stephanie, and Damian, whose scowl was deeper than usual.

"Oh my g… Tim! Cass! You're back!" Dick Grayson cried out. He hugged both of them. "Someone needs a haircut!" He rustles Tim's hair.

Alfred watched as his "grandkids" talked endlessly. He had to remind them of proper manners a few times already. It wasn't until then that Dick realized that everyone was suited up.

"So… you guys planning on going out tonight?" Dick asked rather awkwardly. Tim looked confused.

"I was planning to, Grayson." Damian muttered.

"I was actually kind of tired Dick. I think I'm going to sleep in my room tonight. For Alfred's sake at least." Tim said.

"Yes, I am too. I will visit Babs tomorrow with Steph." Cassandra said with a smile.

"We should turn in too. Dick, you mind if I stay tonight? I already called my mom." Stephanie asked, even though she already knew the answer. Dick was about to reply until the current wonder boy concluded, "Last time I checked this is the Wayne manor. Not an orphanage."

"Good night, Damian. Dick smiled slightly at the boy, "We'll be patrolling first thing tomorrow night. Damian glared at his other siblings and left with his head held high. Dick sighed. "Sorry about him. He's just a little grouchy. We didn't get to patrol tonight, but this is your guy's house as well. I'll be in the cave."

It was 1 A.M. by the time Dick had made it to the Batcave and everyone else to their rooms. He smiled. He hadn't seen his younger brother and sister in a long while.

"Family always seems to make you smile, Master Richard." Alfred stated. Dick nodded and started on the Batcomputer.

Something seemed off. Dick couldn't ignore the nagging voice telling him _something_ was up. What if someone had been in the cave? Someone who wasn't suppose to be.

This was odd; the transporter was off and Damian was the only one who had gone in the Cave recently.

"Alfie, it could be just a hunch, but I think we had a surprise visitor this evening."


	2. Wayne Manor

Disclaimer: Characters belonging to DC Universe are NOT mine. I wish. Only the Character of Whisper is mine.

Thank you for reviewing and adding me to your lists! It means a lot to me. The thing is I have a hard time starting stories. But I promise the middle and end will be soo much better! On with story…

**Chapter 2:**_** Intruder**_

6:00 A.M.

"Master Richard! Please tell me you did not spend your night "investigating" our unknown visitor all night, if there was a visitor. Perhaps it was just another animal. "

"No Alfred. Someone _was _here. And I'm going to prove it." Alfred simply sighed. They were all just too stubborn.

"Very well then, but you have 30 minutes to get dressed and ready. The young masters and madams are expecting you at breakfast. So I suggest you put your work on hold. Richard Grayson needs to get to work as well." Alfred really had a way of telling them what to do and making it sound as if they had a choice.

"LOOK YOU LITTLE BRAT-"

"Master Timothy!"

"You little twerp-"

"OW!"

"Miss Cassandra!"

"Nice one Cass!"

"Shut up Fat girl!-"

"Oh boy… This is gonna be a long one." Dick muttered. He just walked down to the kitchen and they were already arguing. "Ok enough! Tim watch your language, Steph don't encourage Cassandra, and Cass keep your hands to yourself.

"Pathetic shrews."

Dick put his hand on his forehead. Damian was a bit of a handful sometimes.

Things were a lot quieter after Dick arrived except for the glares between Damian and Tim and the occasional under the table hitting.

"Something wrong?" Cassandra implied sensing how uncomfortable Dick looked.

"It's just that I haven't been in Wayne manor in such a long time and I've only been in the cave a few times... It just feels weird."

"Where are you living then?" Tim took a sip of his orange juice and set it down.

"At Wayne Tower. Damian and I set up the Batbunker below the building. He even got the car flying. But besides that, I think someone was messing around the cave last night."

"How do you know?" Cassandra asked

"Well at first it was just a gut feeling but while I was walking around I noticed some of the stuff were misplaced, and then the sheets we had over them were all, wrong."

"HEYWhoever it is will probably come back or at least left some handprints right?" Stephanie cut it.

"Steph is right Dick; we'll find whoever this is and take them down." Tim said never taking his eyes off Damian. Dick didn't feel like dealing with them today. He just decided to ignore that part.

"Good. 'Cuz that's what you guys are going to do today. Since Cass and Steph are heading to Babs' place you two can do just that." Dick stood up nodding his head towards Damian and Tim.

"Wait. Why would I work with that thing? Besides what are you going to do?" Tim replied, not happy about the idea of working with someone who almost killed him once and would probably do it again if he had the chance.

"I'm going to a Wayne Tech meeting all day today. I'm thinking of just handing everything over to you." Dick sighed. "So suck it up, Timmy." Dick got up and ruffled Tim's hair and said his goodbyes to everyone else.

"I want no blood or any type of injuries. Girls, I want you back before I get here alright?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"Yes Dick."

"Later Dick."

"I'll do whatever I wish."

"Good luck Alfred.

Dick smiled a bit and descended towards Wayne tower. This had to be better than dealing with those _kids_. He couldn't even call them that anymore. Timmy wasn't his little Timmy anymore, since when did he grow up? And since did Cassandra and Steph look so _womanly. _Ugh, when did all of this happen? Next thing Damian's going to be taking over Wayne Tech. Or the League of Assassins. Hopefully Wayne Tech.

Before he knew it, he had arrived at the parking lot. _Bruce Wayne_ had been painted over with _Dick Grayson._

*Sigh*

_Ivy maybe. No this break in had no plants in it. It had to be an inside job. But what could they want with with a-_

"Mr. Wayne?" Dick was cut off from his thoughts by the new financial advisor who had been talking to him.

He smiled. "I'm sorry, what?"

"The meetings over, Mr. Wayne. I just wanted to ask you a few questions without the board breathing down my neck. If it's ok with you of course."

"Call me Dick and yes lets go up to my office miss, -I'm sorry I didn't get your name?"

"Oh, Um Veronica."

"Ok, Veronica, this way please."

They walked up Dick's office.

"Your wife is very beautiful - Oh um Dick." She smiled looking at the old picture of Babs and Dick. She was obviously new. Dick had adopted Bruce's playboy idiot act.

"Oh she's not-"He smiled stopping mid-sentence. "Thank You she's even more beautiful in the inside."

She nodded thoughtfully. "I'll just get straight to the point, I wanted to ask you about the missing gaps in your business account. I mean there are large sums of money being taking out of this company's profit. And for unknown reason. I hope I'm not being too nosy but where is all this money going to?"

Dick stopped short. How did she know about this? Wait she was in charge of the financial stuff. Damn. Quick excuse.

"Well there are some business trips and other stuff. Creations of new gadgets and stuff." Why couldn't he lie as good as he usually did? She gave a look as if to say _I see right through you._

"Oh, I must have not seen that then." Or maybe he was just being paranoid. "Well that was all, Dick, I'm sorry if I seem uptight but I really don't want to screw this up. Especially since you hired me right after college."

She seemed like a nice girl, who just got her fingertips over Barbara's picture. Maybe some more evidence would do, just to make sure.

"I understand Veronica, why don't you come over my house to meet my family and come to dinner. You know to get to know my employee." He smiled. This took her by surprise.

"It would be an honor."

They made the rest of their arrangements and Dick made it back to the manor at 7' o clock.

"New friend Grayson?" a feminine voice said.

"Babs? Heyy... what are you doing here?"

"I came to drop a few bats off." She smiled.

"Oh gosh, abort before the flirting starts." Someone –probably Steph- shouted.

About 30 minutes later Dick informed everyone of their guest but left out his suspicions. Damian and Tim only had a few bruises. That was a start. Damian just continued to insult Veronica without knowing a single thing about her. Tim informed Dick that their visitor had left no traces. The "family" was urged to get "proper" for their dinner guest.

"The brainless freeloader is here." Damian announced smugly.

"Damian just pretend you're a nice innocent little boy just this once, Kay?" Babs tried.

"Please Babs he can't even act like he's innocent. That would be one helluva lie." He smiled.

"Ha! Good one Dick" Tim who seemed to be in a better mood replied. Alfred opened the door and Veronica's feet were heard coming in.

"Thank you, sir." She said to Alfred as she walked in towards Stephanie, Dick, Babs, Tim, Damian, and Cassandra.

"Hello, I'm Veronica Taylin." She smiled extending her arm out.

Alright so here's a long chapter for everyone! Enjoy some humor in the next chapter and Batman as well as the gang! Any requests are welcome! More Babs/Dick stuff to come promise!


	3. Suspicion

Disclaimer: Only my characters are mine. All characters and ideas belonging to DC Comics aren't.

So here's chapter 3 of this story, I hope everyone's enjoying this. Thanks to everyone who added me and my story to their lists and story alerts. And I'm so sorry for the delay but school has been hell, literally.

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A Whisper in the Darkness **

**Chapter 3 Suspicion **

"So I'm guessing you two know each other?" Babs implied getting an infamous isn't-it-obvious look from Tim.

"Uhh... Yeah, Tim and I worked together on a few projects during college all last year." Veronica awkwardly replied.

"Oh! So you're the person that made Timmy come home all ditsy!" Dick teased. Tim was now glaring at the floor, rubbing his neck. Veronica tried hiding her laughter.

"Well if you idiots ever decide to move on to dinner, you'll find me in there. Pennyworth! I'm hungry and I don't plan to wait." Damian arrogantly said. Alfred reluctantly followed, bowing before he left.

Dick sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that week. "That's Damian. Just ignore him and he'll disappear. Well anyways that was Alfred, you already know Tim and me, this is Barbara, we just call her Babs-"

"Oh you're wif-"

"AND! That's Cassandra and Steph."

She looked at Dick then at Babs. "But I thought you said she was your wife?"

"Huh?" Babs exclaimed.

"Yes, he wishes." Cass smiled.

"No, um, we're really good friends." Babs replied giving Dick another look.

"*Cough* lets go to the dinning room. Please." Dick swiftly made his way to the rather large dinner table that was never really used. Everyone else followed. Veronica and Steph quickly started up another conversation, and everyone else joined in.

"So yeah I just ended up here. Mr. Fox interviewed me about a month ago." Veronica smiled.

_**BEEP. BEEP. BEEP**_

**Crap.**

Dick mentally slapped himself. Tim had done another scan of the cave and actually found something. The fingerprints were being examined and he forgot to turn the sound off. Dick turned to Alfred, who quickly caught on.

"Oh my! I must have left the oven on! Excuse me sirs and madams." Alfred said heading to Bruce's old study.

"I thought the kitchen was that way." Veronica motioned to the door leading to the kitchen.

**She's too observant.** Dick thought.

"There are two kitchens." Steph casually stated.

"Oh." She replied.

**Did she just smirk? **

"Wow. I've never seen it before." Veronica said out of nowhere. She was looking blankly towards the window. Through the clear windows was the bat-signal standing tall over the cold, foggy, dirty air of Gotham City. She seemed to snap out of it and looked at her watch, "Well thank you so much for dinner and it was great meeting you all. But I have to get going." She smiled at everyone quickly hugging them and exiting.

"Well that was easy." Cassandra sighed.

"…almost too easy." Dick whispered to himself. "Well duty calls. Damian let's go. Steph I want you to keep training. Babs you're welcome to help. Cass, can you look into the 'prints for us? "

Tim impatiently waited for his own task. He didn't like getting bossed around, but he didn't like getting excluded either. "What am I suppose to do Dick."

Dick smiled. "Well, I thought you wanted to join us Timmy?" Tim looked surprised and gladly accepted.

Everyone began their task and soon Gotham's protectors were hitting the rooftops.

"Commissioner." The Batman's deep voice greeted Commissioner Jim Gordon. His voice worried him. Not because he was afraid, but because this wasn't the batman he knew. This one was new. This ones voice was much warmer.

"Batman. Robin." He had grown accustomed to the Batman's abrupt arrivals and departures and all the allies Batman had. Red Robin. That was odd. He hadn't seen the kid in months.

"Red Robin. Welcome back son." The commissioner smiled at him. "I'm guessing you're the person everyone keeps confusing for Dr. Mid-Nite?"

No answer.

"Get to the point." This Robin was new too. Younger than the other one, but much more blunt.

"There was another break in at Wayne Tech. this evening. I haven't sent anyone in so you can examine it first. I'm afraid he, or she, is targeting the Wayne's. They're good people Batman but they're loaded with cash. Grayson's special to my daughter, I'm pretty sure you don't want to be mauled by her." Gordon heard a laugh? He turned around and of course, no one was there.

Wayne Tech had merely no damage, besides the broken window and desk. Whoever this was wanted to be heard but not known. Batman walked through the dark halls of the tower.

**A flash in the financial department? **Batman called in his two allies and carefully walked towards the light. Batman got to it first and discovered it just to be a flashlight with a backpack attached to it. The backpack was filled with little notes.

_Batman! Wasn't me._

_Made it before_

_You! Nothing_

_Stolen, but Mr. Wayne's stuff._

_Left you a_

_Present in_

_Bathroom. Better realize_

_Who I am soon._

_I want in._

"Is this some kind of joke?" Red Robin questioned. Batman kept quiet and led the trio to the bathroom. Robin turned the lights on. And, of course, there was another backpack with notes.

_Person left_

_Before I got here._

_Sorry, but I coll-_

_Ected evidence to _

_Make life easier?_

_By the person foot_

_It's a woman. Not_

_In files. Already checked._

_Hurry and find me!_

_I can help._

"Here." Batman gave the bags to Damian. "Obviously, this person wants to be known. Let's just go check out the DNA on both the criminal and the… person."

"Slow night?" Babs yelled over the noise in the cave.

"Someone decided to help us." Dick said gruffly.

"Oh?"

"They left a bag full of evidence for us." Tim clarified.

"Tests of fingerprints and Babs picture are done." Dick turned red.

Babs smiled. "Research right?" Tim started sparring with Steph as Damian practiced using his swords.

"OK, did they come out matching?"

"Yes. It's her"

"Looks like she knows." Dick sighed. Great. "Let's pay her a visit shall we?" Dick declared. "Not as batman though. We're not sure if she just assumes, and we don't want to prove her assumptions right."

"Well she hangs at Latin restaurant during the night. And I already got her address and work hours. She was born in California. Bad relationship with parents and is smart." Cassandra stated proudly. Dick smiled at her.

"Good job Cass. Now go get ready. We're going to," Dick looked at the computer."- we're going to Casa de baile!" Dick declared. Everyone frowned.

"Please, I'd rather stay here with Pennyworth."

"I have to go back to my mom's house."

"Uhh... I'm busy?"

"Do I have to?"

"The world needs Oracle. Sorry short pants."

Dick glared. "Damian stay. You're not allowed in there. Steph I guess you can go home. Cass you're not busy and Babs they can do it on their own Kay?"

In two hours they were arriving at the Latin Dance restaurant. No one wanted to go and once they got there, 3 groans reached Dick's ears.

"Suck it up! We'll just see what I can get out of Veronica and were out. No eating and no dancing." Dick snapped as he helped Babs in. The "cute" waiter, according to Babs and Cassandra, led them to their table and excused himself.

"Armando. That's his name."

"Arrrmando. I like it."

Dick gave them a glare and Tim was whining about something that couldn't be heard over Ricky Martin's voice.

Dick didn't think Veronica looked like a party type of person. Their waitress was dancing towards their table. Tim perked up and Cass kicked him under the table.

"What? So only you two are allowed to go Gaga for Armando?" Tim yelled and Armando turned around." Dick laughed.

"Welcome to Casa de baile may I take your ord-"She stopped mid-sentence. The waitress was Veronica. She started blushing a bit. "Hey what are you guys doing here?"

"Is there somewhere quiet we can go?" Dick yelled. She nodded and led Dick to the back of the restaurant.

"Everything OK?" She asked.

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OK so there's chapter 4. All the Babs/Dick fans will love the next chapter. This is going to be Whisper's story. So were almost to the good parts. Please review!


	4. Confrontation

**Disclaimer: All the characters, places and ideas belonging to DC Comics are theirs! Not mine. The songs I used are the artists'! **

**A/N: I translated the song. Sorry for the delay I hope you guys like this chapter. Please review!

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"I'm going to get right to the point Veronica. What do you know?" Dick asked using his Batman voice. She seemed unaffected by it though. She frowned, and then sighed.

"So I really look that suspicious, huh?"

"This is serious. I already know what you did so spill."

"Gee, someone's a bit cranky."

"Veronica."

"OK, OK! Don't bite my head off. Look. I went it but I didn't know what was going on, I promise! I went in then got out. It's not like I touched anything, or hurt anyone! It's just that these two guys were following me and I got scared so I jumped in-"

Dick's eyes nearly popped out. Did all of Gotham know?

"Veronica, you're endangering my family, you know what's going on and you didn't tell me? Do you know what you could of caused if the word got out?"

"So you're implying its true?"

Dick stayed silent. It stayed like that for what seemed like an hour. Dick ran a hand through his hair; he was getting pretty bitter about this situation. Veronica was getting impatient. She crossed her arms as a slight breeze past by them.

"I'm taking that as a yes, I won't tell anyone, for now. But I'll warn you everyone's going to find out soon enough, Dick. You're putting so many people's lives at risk here!"

"Me? Excuse me, but what the hell are you talking about?" Dick was getting dangerously close but Veronica was giving off the same glare as Dick. "You're the one who's out to destroy not only MY life, but Babs, Tim's, Cassandra's, Alfred's, Damian's, hell even Krypto's!"

She looked at him confused. "Wait. I'm talking about me going into Wayne Tech. last night, and the files I found on the company moving to China! Why in the hell is Krypto in this? What isn't he the super dog? What does he, or it, have anything to do with this?"

Dick's mouth literally dropped to the floor. He felt pretty stupid for coming on to her like that.

"Dick? Veronica?" Tim's head peered in as he eyed both of them mysteriously. "Everything, OK? You guy's been gone for while."

Dick erupted into laughter. "Did you hear that Timmy? She was talking about the company and China! Aw, man. Why don't we go back inside?" He smiled as he started walking, Tim gave a questioning look at Veronica who ignored Tim and went after Dick.

"What were you talking about?" She asked turning Dick around.

"Those files of course, it's just that I thought you though that I was actually considering moving Wayne Tech. to China. I denied those papers a long time ago. I just kept them hidden so nothing like this would happen."

"Oh." They stayed silent for another long pause. Tim was getting impatient.

"Can we go now?"

"Sorry for coming on strong back there, Dick. I just, I don't know."

"Same here. But hey all is forgiven, right?" He gave his famous Grayson smile.

She smiled back and made it back to a near deaf Barbara and Cassandra.

"Miss me?" Dick teased as he set his arm around Babs.

"Oh I didn't think I could survive any longer. So does she know?"

All four of them scooted in trying to hide their conversation.

"I don't think so. Well at least not now."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow.

"I'll explain when we get back to the manor. Let's just make it so we were here for more than just interrogating."

After 30 minutes, they finished eating and were set to leave.

"Check please!" Dick yelled over the blaring Latin music.

"Sorry, no can do." Veronica appeared smiling.

"Why?" Tim asked, hoping not to be ignored.

"Didn't you guys read the sign? No ones allowed back out until they dance to at least one song. So get up, or else"

"No I don't think we have time."

"I don't dance"

"Don't want to."

"Um, are you seriously implying this?"

Veronica rolled her eyes. "Look whiners, what's the problem? They way I see it you either dance or never leave. There's two securities outside that don't let anyone out without our consent. So, your choice."

Everyone sighed and Barbara looked very upset.

"Fine, looks like I'll take matters into my own hands. Armando! 'Cardo! Liz! We have some stubborn people on our hands!" As soon as she that two men and a petite woman arrived. Liz, the only woman there grabbed Dick by the collar and dragged him over to dance. Dick was too preoccupied with Babs. Ricardo, as he introduced himself carried an angered Cassandra next to them. Armando smiled at Babs and started towards her.

Barbara laughed at the others and raised an eyebrow at Armando and Veronica.

"Are you serious?

"Barbara, its ok. Just a little obstacle can't get in your way. Just get out there and let loose. Please. For Dick at least. He won't let go until you will." She smirked at her last comment.

Babs sighed and wheeled herself over to Armando. "Let's just get this over with already."

Tim was glued to the chair as Veronica turned to face him. "What, do you think you're getting out of this?"

"I'm not in the mood. Besides, everyone's already taken." Tim slumped in his chair satisfied with the thoughtful look on her face. She looked lost. The little smirk she had scared him though.

"You get the best one though. Let's go I love this song." She winked at him and held her hand out. "Please, Timmy." Was she pouting? Oh, no.

"Fine." He mumbled as Veronica ran towards the others. They looked like they were having a good time, except for Dick who kept looking over at Armando with dirty looks. Poor guy, it looked like he was having a heart attack every time he put his hands on Babs.

Meanwhile, Cass and Babs were laughing and dancing away. Tim just stood there not listening to what Veronica was saying.

"Tim!" She smacked him on the back of his head. "Listen. I've been working here since forever and teaching people since forever. You're in good hands."

"Ow! Pay attention to your surroundings!" Dicks dance partner nagged him after he stepped on her foot for what seemed like the millionth time.

Tim and Veronica laughed at them.

"OK so, Salsa is a very intimate dance. You have to at least have trust on your partner." She said as she placed Tim's hand on her waist and another on her shoulder. Her hands mirrored his. "Ok so now just move to the beat. Let loose and have fun!"

She started moving around. At first Tim blushed, thinking he was getting special treatment, but as he looked around he noticed this was how salsa was dance to. She was doing most of the leading and Dick's occasional yelling to Armando and Ricardo was heard. After about 5 songs Tim was really getting into it. He had to act like this at the society balls anyways. He could have sworn he saw paparazzi in that bush any who.

"That's it Tim just move to the beat." Veronica cooed. She moved her hips and extended their arms so that there fingertips were the only thing touching, and then came back. Tim twirled her around.

"You've done this before haven't you?" She asked, impressed.

"Yeah my mom made me her dance partner when my dad didn't want to go with her."

They laughed as Tim turned her around holding onto her waist. This time she blushed. Now Dick directed his yell towards them

"Oh, smooth Casanova!"

_So much adrenaline rush to my head__  
__I look like dancing and fire comes from your hips__  
__And with a drum you and I are approaching__  
__It is the temptation that drives me crazy and I despair_

_Is that your waist is my subtle madness__  
__You're going higher, I'll trapping__  
__And it is in your body girl__  
__Baby breathing__  
__And you have everything in life pa'gozar_

"You've got skills Tim."

**Dance, that there is extra rhythm, dance that dance me****  
****And approach a little Salome****  
****Dance the rhythm that awaits, dance that dance with me****  
****Give me your woman's spell****  
****Ay ay ay you came down from heaven****  
****Ay ay ay, and threw the spotlight****  
****Ay ay ay you came down from heaven****  
****Ay ay ay girl look if you want.**

She turned back around. The song ended and Tim was still holding on to her.

"Umm... It's time to switch partners." She stuttered as she let go of his grasp and smiled at Ricardo.

Armando was heading towards Liz until Cassandra got in and "stole him away". Tim smiled at them, noticing Dick at Babs' side right after. He frowned at Ricardo holding Veronica though. Why? He didn't know it was just a stupid Spanish dance that people made up anyways. He had more important things to do. He was about to leave when Liz pulled him back in.

"Oh, no last on, we promise."

S**uavemente, besame****  
****que quiero sentir tus labios****  
****besandome otra vez.****  
****(Suave)Besame, besame****  
****(Suave)Besame otra vez**

"You know Spanish, Babs?" Dick asked as he lifted Bab's up and set her on his lap, finally taking a break.

"A little." She said as she scooted next to Dick.

"What is this song saying then?"

"Um, softly, kiss me I wan-" She was in the middle of concentrating when Dicks lips came crashing down on hers. She didn't pull back for a few seconds. They both stayed quiet.

The song ended and they were soon joined by a smiling Cassandra and Tim.

"Can we please go now?" Tim asked.

"Uh, yeah go get the car while I get the check." Dick tossed the keys over to Tim.

"I'll go too." Babs said as she scooted into her chair and left to find Tim.

"Veronica, we danced, so can we have the check now?"

"Its on the house. Just for being amazing dance partners." She smiled at them and linked arms with Cassandra and Dick leading them to the valet section.

She hugged them good-bye and gave a quick wave to Babs and Tim.

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"Does she, or does she not know Grayson?" Damian stated as soon as they stepped foot in the house. They had dropped off Babs at her house and barely arrived at the manor.

"It's good to see you too Damian." Dick half-smiled at the impatient boy. _Just like his dad._

"I don't think she does." Tim piped in.

"No one asked you Drake!"

"Not now guys, and to answer your question." Dick instantly turned serious. "I don't think she knows, I know she knows."


	5. Welcome to Hell

**Disclaimer: **All the ideas, characters, and places belonging to DC Comics are theirs! I don't have anything to do with them!

**A/N: **I am trying to follow with Batman continuity as best as I can but since I am writing about my own character it is kind of hard. I'm getting serious writers block because I really do suck at writing beginnings! I'm thinking about rewriting but I don't know! Thank you for the reviews! They make my day. Sorry for the delay, but I'll be writing more this week. Spring Break!

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Dick looked around making sure no else was in the bunker. It seemed like everyone had disappeared. The last few days had been pretty hectic, but Gotham needed her Batman. Dick wasn't sure why Tim and Cass were back. He loved it, but he knew something was up. Tim had been so pessimistic and cranky. Cass was just not herself. He wasn't sure if it was the right time to tell Cass about Bruce, he was sure Tim already knew. Dick just had to tell him how sorry he was and about the clues they had found. Thinking about finding the clues led to Damian. That kid just kept getting weirder. He would suddenly pick something deadly up once Dick was in the room then drop it holding his head.

**Oof! Clank. Ah!**

_What was that?_

Dick glared to the direction that the sound was coming from. It was so dark.

"Damian?"

Silence.

_The intruder!_

Dick quickly grabbed one of his handy Bo staffs. He somersaulted his way in and hit the person in the gut.

"**Ahh!"**

Then over the person's back. Dick was heading towards the light switch when the "intruder" grabbed him by legs causing him to fall chin first onto the cold hard floor of the bunker.

"Son of a!-" Dick grunted and kicked the person's head. Dick quickly jumped up. And apparently so did the other person. Dick and the person traded punches and even a few kicks. Dick was getting tired of this and leaned the person against the wall with his Bo staff. The person quickly turned it around switching the light switch as well.

"Tim? What the hell are you doing down here with the light off?"

"Um, I was- Wait, why did you attack me?"

"I thought you were the intruder and would you get off me!" Tim released his grip and dropped the Bo staff.

"You didn't answer my question Tim, What are you doing down here?"

"What, I'm not allowed here or something?"

"That's not what I meant. Why are you getting so worked up about a simple question?" Dick ran a hand through his hair. Tim glared at the floor.

"Tim. I'm sorry, about the whole Bruce thing, and freaking out on you. You were right though. He is alive and were going to do everything we can to get him back Timmy. You are going to stay, right?" Tim looked up to see Dick. He certainly did not expect and apology from Dick, or that! How did he know about Bruce though? Ugh, stupid Dick just made him confused and of course left him with no explanation at all! Like the whole Veronica thing, no explanation! He only gave one to that little monster.

"Tim… Say something."

_I am talking! Ugh! I mean!_

Dick just stared at Tim who kept pacing and talking to himself. Damian wasn't the only weird one anymore.

"Sorry. It's just I came back to show you the evidence I found and I expected you to be a #$%& about it. But yeah they're on the table." Dick walked over to the items Tim had spread on the table. He decided to just leave Tim to his little self conversation.

"No. Probably doesn't. Wait, Maybe. No, can't be it."

"Timmy?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Shut up."

* * *

The rest of the time they continued to talk about their reason and evidence. They were in full Batman and Robin- err, _Red _Robin form. For this little instant Dick forgot about everything. Gotham, Oberon Sexton, The Domino Killer, Roy, The Justice League, and hell he even put off the league of assassins trying to kill everyone.

"Cass knows, that's why she's back too. We were in regular contact."

"Yeah I kind of figured. She's not Batgirl anymore."

"Yeah, well I kind of figured that out when I came in to find Steph in here. She's gotten good. Real good. She took out Prudence, um an assassin, as if she was a common thug! Is Babs training her? How's she working with the little monster?" Tim asked.

They were out patrolling and had gotten pretty deep into their conversation after stopping a robbery.

"Little monster? You know he's really not _that_ bad, but anyways it took a little convincing and arguing but we all trained her. As for her and Damian, They're… coping."

"What's the issue with Selina, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy then? I saw them come into this bank and I thought they were going to rob it or something. They ended up catching the perp! How's Selina doing by the way?"

Dick smiled. This kid asked too many questions when he was feeling happy.

"Red Robin?"

"Yes, Batman?"

"Please, shut the hell up." And with that Dick jumped back into the Gotham air. He called for the Batmobile and met up with Damian. It was a slow night for Batman and Robin.

* * *

"Earth to Red Robin!" Tim snapped out of his daze. Stephanie –Batgirl- was waving a hand in front of his face. He smiled. Batman and Robin were patrolling. Why not have a little fun?

Steph saw the little smirk on Tim's face. "Whatever you're thinking about doing. I'm so not in! Oracle will be pissed and so will Batman." She started to hurry off but Tim quickly grabbed her by the waist and jumped off the building.

"You're so dead Tim," She tried saying as Tim shot the grappling hook line right when it looked like they were going to crash. They landed safely next to Dunkin doughnuts. They laughed as they watched the expression on the worker's face.

"Batgirl, care for a doughnut?"

"Why yes I will Red Robin." They laughed and walked in. The worker looked shocked and handed them their doughnuts and coffee.

"I'm so dead once Oracle finds out."

"Your point?" Red Robin retorted.

They continued their "date".

* * *

By now it was nearing 6:00 am and Dick was happy to get home.

"Well that was absolutely useless. Good job Grayson, you can stop a thug! I'm leaving, so if you need my aid I won't be there." Damian said as he hurried up stairs.

"Was I that weird Alfie?" Dick smiled at Alfred.

"Master Damian is certainly a child like no other Master Richard. Now if you'll excuse me, I must aid the boy." Dick nodded at Alfred and sat down at the computer. No sign of Tim. Or Steph. He checked the tracker and cracked a smile. They could use the time. He would call them in an hour. For now he'd just enjoy the silence of the bunker and solve his mysteries.

"You know if you want to relax the top of the T-Rex is a great place to do it."

The hell.

Dick quickly turned around thanking himself for not taking his cowl off.

He was right. Standing in front of him was no other that Veronica Taylin.

Dick gave her his best bat glare but she simply smiled at him and leaned against the desk he was working on.

"So you did use my evidence! I already know who he is. Some C-list villain. You know I'm really good at the game clue. Dick? Hello!"

Dick sighed. She wasn't cracking. It was best to just explain to her and make her keep it a secret. He took the cowl off and her eyes glowed. "Happy?" He said.

"Very." She kept smiling at him.

"Look, you stay quiet and that's the end of this. You don't come back in and you keep your job." This time she glared at him.

"I don't think so. I want to help."

Great. Do people not realize that crime fighting wasn't all fun and games?

"No. Now, leave before I make you." She didn't budge. In fact she looked more determined.

"I didn't want to have to stoop this low. But I'm going to help you all. Like it. Or not. So train me, or I spill." She dangerously replied.

"You wouldn't dare." Dick said through gritted teeth. Who did she think she was?

"Try me." She smirked back at him. Dick could hear a motorcycle nearing in. He didn't want Tim and Stephanie seeing Veronica in here. He would simply put her through the grueling training Bruce had him, Babs, Tim, and Stephanie go through. She'll quit in a week at the most.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Fine. You'll have at least a years worth of training and then we'll see how much you like it. Now go. We have a meeting tomorrow and your job depends on it. He told her rather annoyed. He wouldn't fire her. She was excellent at her job but he needed her out.

"Oh thank you!" She hugged him tightly. Dick sighed, yet again, and returned the hug. He really did like her, but he wasn't going to let her get hurt like the others. She was a good person who didn't deserve this. She let go and ran back to the penthouse.

Tim and Steph rode back in with smiles plastered on their faces. Stephanie was trying to hide her giggling.

"Welcome back love birds. Go sleep you little idiots!" Dick messed with their hair and led them upstairs.

The next day had been boring. The company had another meeting, this time with Damian leading again. Dick didn't feel up to it. He was already grumbling about the having to train Veronica once she got off of work.

He managed to get everyone –including Alfred- out of the house. Veronica had gotten their soon and Dick led her back down to the cave.

"Hell day begins today." Dick smiled at her as he threw a batarang at her and then started the virtual fight scene. The cool thing about their equipment was that it looked authentic, and it definitely hurt like a real fight would. She was struggling. And this was the easy part; the harder part began after about 5 more of these kinds of drills.

"Looks like hells my new home then." She managed to yell.

* * *

Short chapter that starts the basis to this story! I'll add at least two more chapters this following week. Keep reviewing!


	6. Time

**Disclaimer**: Nothing is mine expect for the character of Veronica. Everything else is owned by DC Comics.

**A/N:** I forgot to mention the clues that Tim and Dick have found in the comics. In Red Robin Tim found a cave drawing of a bat symbol and a fossilized batarang. As for Dick, in Batman and Robin he decided to take the corpse that Superman gave him ,said to be that of Bruce's, to the Lazarus pit. When the person emerged, it tried killing Dick, the Knight and Squire, Batwoman, Alfred, and Damian. They concluded it was one of Bruce's clones created by Dr. Hurt and that Bruce was lost in time. Anyways don't forget to review! Also I decided to advance the Batfamily happenings, about a year and a half before cry for justice.

* * *

The agonizing screams could be heard throughout Wayne manor.

"Oh come on it's really not that painful."

"Ahhhhh! I HATE YOU."

"Aw, I love you too, but it's just a stretch!"

Barbara had been watching over her cameras when she heard the painful screams, she zoomed in to the bat bunker cam and was rather amused. She was pretty sure the other person was the one that was supposed to be screaming like crazy, and not the mentor. She couldn't help but laugh. As soon as the trainer and the trainee, as Dick put it, heard her they stopped what they were doing.

"It's not funny Babs that hurt like hell!" Dick Grayson tried explaining. They were mid through they're training when Veronica decided Dick should stretch. She probably did it as revenge, putting him in the most uncomfortable poses.

"I'm sure it did pixie boots." She managed to mutter in between giggles.

Dick glared at Veronica. This was her fault.

"Go run 10 miles. Then practice your breathing exercises." He smirked at her.

"Yeah, right. You'll be lucky if I run at all. Breathing exercises are too boring anyways. Can't we go back to some martial arts stuff?" She whined.

"Alright, I enjoy kicking your ass anyways." He replied.

"She's a whiner just like you, Grayson." Babs was really enjoying this. Dick was certainly not going easy on her as he swiftly sweep kicked her.

"Oof." Veronica glared at him.

"That's the last time my butt's going down. That's a warning by the way." She kicked herself back up going for a high roundhouse kick. Dick grabbed her leg and pushed her back down on her bottom.

"Sure it was." Dick simply said.

They continued this way for hours. Veronica would try some move and she ended up on her bum. She was getting frustrated and extremely annoyed. Dick was impressed by her resilience, but she wouldn't last more than two weeks like this.

"You look like hell. Get some rest, I need to go out." Dick commanded. He was standing over her again.

"Whatever." She mumbled.

* * *

It was nearing the morning and Dick decided to spend the night off. He checked in with Damian who was doing some exercise with his swords.

_Who in the right mind would give this kid a lethal weapon…? Oh right, me._

"What do you want, Grayson?" Damian asked him. He was in a good mood.

"Just seeing what you were up to." Dick shrugged.

"That's very normal." Damian replied continuing what he was doing.

"Yeah, and so is a 10 year old playing with swords." Dick retorted ignoring the insults. He walked towards the gym; sure enough Tim was in there.

"Hey." Dick called out.

Tim turned around and nodded at him. Dick sighed, everyone was just so boring. Now he understood why Bruce was always gone during the night.

"You need something?" Tim asked, panting. Why did everyone have to assume he needed something? Dick was just dropping by!

"No, can't I just say hi?" Dick replied annoyed.

Tim raised an eyebrow at him and got back to his workout. Dick decided it would be best to go with Alfred and Cassandra. At least they weren't so… uptight. He found them in the kitchen. They talked for a bit and then everyone went upstairs.

Things were so different between everyone. Even Selina was pretty, family like, but not his siblings. Times and circumstances changed though. He understood that. He was pretty sure he changed too. They lost their mentor, their _father_. They all lost their parents before and the second time around wasn't easy either. Bruce may still be alive, but how the hell were they going to bring him back? The emotional scars had been made.

So much Darkness overtook them.

* * *

6 months had passed. Tim and Cass came and left. They were gone most of the time though.

Veronica was impressive. Stephanie, Barbara, and Donna offered help in training her too. Damian was just willing to kick her around a bit. Lately though, it had become an even fight. She didn't give up, and Dick was considering letting her do this. Alfred was already working on her costume, against Dick's wishes. They all grew so attached to her. Stephanie had a girlfriend to talk to. Donna had another "hero in training" to mother. Damian had someone new to pick on. Babs had a new recruit to inform. Alfred had another soldier to worry about. And Dick, he had a person full of hope and happiness. She was full of sarcasm like all of them. She was great at her job, a great fighter, an OK detective, and a great person.

She cared.

She was a natural.

Veronica had been down at the cave for hours, everyday for the past months. It certainly showed.

Dick had been pondering about "issues" for the past few minutes, that he didn't notice Veronica and Stephanie's current conversation about, well he wasn't sure.

"OK how about eclipse?" Veronica asked as she and Steph sparred.

"Nah, too bleh. How about, Poison?" Steph asked.

"Sounds too much like Poison Ivy.

"What are you two talking about?" Dick asked rather lost.

"My superhero name." Veronica smiled as she kicked Stephanie down. Dick glared at her. It wasn't like she was going to be using one any time soon anyway.

"Right, Stephanie, go get Damian and suit up. We're going somewhere and it isn't going to be pretty." Dick ordered

"Got it, boss." Steph replied leaving quickly to find Robin.

"Who are you going after?"

"Some black glove members, and whoever's trying to kill them. I'm afraid Dr. Hurt or Joker might have something to so with this." The Batman gruffly answered.

The Batmobile and the ricochet sped off one after the other leaving Veronica alone.

"Is something bothering you, Miss Veronica?" Alfred inquired.

"I don't know Alfred; I just have a bad feeling is all." She replied.

"I trust you shouldn't worry. Master Richard and the children can handle themselves quite well."

"Yeah, we'll see." She said looking towards the direction of the cave's entrance.

Something didn't seem right. Something seemed incredibly wrong. They would be alright, right?

* * *

OK so there it is! Please review! I get my comics tomorrow! 3 Yeah, so the reason for a specific time in this story will make sense in the third part. I have big plans for Veronica.


	7. Countdown

**Disclaimer: **Every Idea, person, and place belonging to DC Comics is there's! The only thing I own is Veronica Taylin!

**A/N:** This is based on the happenings of the current Red Robin story. No one reviewed the last chapter. I was pretty disappointed and waiting for more reviews. That's why I didn't do the next chapter. So PLEASE REVIEW!

* * *

4:00 A.M.

What the _hell?_ Were they not capable of calling? Veronica was going to be all tired and moody tomorrow- uh, today- because of them! Not even one call or ring from the COM link. Not even Oracle told her anything!

_Screw them. _

Veronica decided to get up from her chair and try to get some sleep. She had been out on her balcony all night trying to get a glimpse of whatever was going on. The rain was the bigger influence on her though. Dick was so getting it from her later on.

5:00 A.M.

She still couldn't sleep. This was ridiculous. She had work in two hours.

_Maybe some T.V should help._

"Gun fire has been heard throughout Gotham city. Reports say that Batman has been the new target of a new crazed villain. Many police officers have been shot down while protecting Commissioner Gordon who has been severely wounded. What seems to be Doctor Mid-Nite, along with Batgirl, Batman and Robin have been seen throughout the city trying to desperately bring down the chaos."

_Holy freaking crap!_

That was enough for her. She turned the T.V. off and headed towards Wayne Tower. Dick was going to let her help him. She was good enough.

She grabbed her jacked and keys and zoomed off to the penthouse. No one would be paying attention to her anyways, since some guy was trying to kill everyone right?

* * *

By the time she got there, she saw Batgirl on the camera, outside of Wayne Manor with two other women and a knocked out guy next to them. OK. No big deal, right? It wasn't like she was use to this or anything.

Everything was so dark she tried maneuvering to the central computer.

"Who's there?" She heard Barbara's voice say.

"It's me Babs! Why are all the lights off? Ahh!"

Veronica had been knocked to the floor in an instance. OK _now_ what was going on?

"V?" Barbara whispered out. She was starting to get anxious and she was pretty sure someone had just hit Veronica, but who was this someone?

Something was definitely going on. Veronica got up quietly and punched the first person she felt. There were about two more people according to their footing. Maybe some weapons could be useful

Dick had trained her to fight and get around in the dark. Veronica never thought it would be useful until now.

_Note to self, thank Dick later. _

Veronica managed to pick something up without making a sound. First thing she had to do was to find Barbara and protect her.

"Veronica!" Barbara tried finding her. Did _they_ do something to her? She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned stiff. The hand squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. She tried to hold in her relief. That was surely Veronica.

The people were getting closer to them. Veronica felt around the weapon and realized it was a sword. She was going to have to take it lightly. She held the blade in her hand and swiped the hard handle on the back of someone's head. The person blocked it away and kicked her in the gut. She stumbled back towards Babs and aimed the handle towards the person's head again and kicked them. By the sound of it she probably knocked a few teeth out too.

More footsteps. Veronica lunged at the person making the noise. The handle and the person's chest collided with each other.

"What is going on down here?" Alfred's sharp voice amplified through the cave. The person got back up and knocked Veronica down at the same point as the emergency lights came on. Barbara flung something heavy at the back of –what looked like a ninja- in the back of their head. By the time Alfred made it all the way down, there were two people knocked out on the floor,

"They're part of the league." Barbara replied in a serious tone.

"And we're not the only ones they're after." Stephanie, Batgirl rather, came running in. "Everyone OK?"

"Yeah we're fine. Veronica knocked them out cold." Babs replied, impressed maybe? Veronica assumed that was a thank you in bat slang.

She smiled in return. "What do you mean we're not the only ones, Steph?"

"I think Mistress Stephanie is referring to our scared guests in the main manor that Batgirl just rescued as well as myself and some other unfortunate members." Alfred implied.

"Who?" Barbara asked.

"Miss Tam Fox, I believe, and Vicki Vale."

Barbara raised an eyebrow at Alfred. Vicki Vale wasn't really a respected guest around Wayne Manor and Tam Fox?

"Yeah some of the assassins were about to kill them before I stepped in. Same for Leslie. I already sent for Leslie though."

"OK what's going on?" Veronica blurted out. What did assassins have to do with anything? Who were Vicki and Tam?

"Does Tim have anything to do with this?" Barbara asked Batgirl.

"He's pretty much centered on this." Stephanie replied.

"Batman to Veronica." She heard Dick calling her.

"Umm Veronica here. Mind telling me what's going on? You know since no one else wants to?"

"There's no time for that. Today's your lucky day. Suit up and go find Julie Madison and Vicki Vale."

"Vale's already in the manor."

"… Alright then you have 20 minutes. Tell everyone to meet in the cave. Just keep Ms. Madison safe you understand? Tell everyone to keep safe and alert. I'll explain later just go now." Dick hung up and left Veronica dumbfounded for a few seconds.

"Was that Dick?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, Alfred I think I'll be requiring my costume now." She smiled at him and he left quickly to retrieve it.

Veronica tried explaining what Dick told her as fast as possible as she suited up.

Her costume was made of pure Kevlar. It was a black body suit with a deep V-neck running down to her stomach, she had a tight bulletproof shirt underneath, hiding very little, a white utility belt with weapons Stephanie taught her how to use, and a black gliding cape. Her mask was a thin strap around her eyes.

She would have admired it more but had to be out of there quickly. Stephanie let her use her old bike. She had to do something too. They sped out quickly and parted ways halfway through.

* * *

Veronica made her way through a neighborhood. She had to locate, protect, and get Julie Madison to the cave as well. It really didn't sound too hard.

By the time Veronica got there, she heard the screams. She quickly broke through the upstairs bathroom window to find two more assassins holding a naked Julie Madison, she assumed. They had one gun pointing to Veronica and another to the woman.

"Go away. This has nothing to do with you." One of the assassins told her.

In a matter of 10 minutes, she had been shot at, stabbed at and punched at. All of them dodged though. Things would have been quicker if Ms. Madison wasn't screaming and screwing things up. Veronica only had 5 minutes to spare. She tossed a smoke pellet at the assassins and smashed their heads onto the sink. She handcuffed them, handed Julie a robe. The GCPD were there in a matter of minutes.

_Oh yeah this isn't weird at all. Whatever just focus._

Veronica could tell Julie was scared. Her heart beat was out of control.

"Just calm down. You are safe now." Veronica muttered.

She nodded. Veronica didn't see her and ignored her for the rest of the time.

"This way." Veronica ushered Julie through her own home towards the police officers

"Wait. What's your name?" Julie whispered still shocked.

Veronica paused for while and smiled to herself.

"I'm Whisper."

* * *

Review! Julie Madison was Bruce's first love by the way. At a point in time they were married, even though she didn't know he was Batman. =)


	8. First Time

Chapter 8: Countdown Part 2.

**Disclaimer**: Every idea, person, place and stuff belonging to DC is strictly theirs and not mines at all!

**A/N:** So I had it wrong Julie Madison was his fiancée. Not wife. As for Veronica not remembering Tim, that was on purpose. This will be the collision arc in my perspective and most of it will be similar. Please review if you would like me to continue!

* * *

"Ra's Al Ghoul won't be giving us any more problems." Dick Grayson said as Veronica entered the Batcave

"What's going on?" Veronica asked.

He walked towards the bed thing, as **she** liked to put it.

Someone apparently had just woken up. Alfred, Stephanie, Damian and now Dick were surrounding him. Veronica didn't want to intrude, but she wanted to know what was going on.

"…Okay. We've got a lot to talk about."

"And don't think your little power play at Wayne Enter…" Damian being an prick. Yadda Yadda.

"That's great Damian. Thanks. Steph? You're, uh, glaring at me, are you OK?

"I don't know Tim…" _That Tim! Stephanie's ex slash former Robin slash Red Robin and the freshman and person I danced with._

"Congratulations, you dog." Damian was really an odd kid. He handed Tim a newspaper. Tim's eyes looked shocked.

"How long was I out for?"

Veronica sighed. She was going to get no information from these people being all, well weird. No one told her what happened. No one complimented her Heroism, so she was sure as hell going to eat their food. She managed to sneak away upstairs only to be greeted by loud noises coming from the kitchen area.

Veronica hadn't taken her costume off, but everyone was downstairs. She decided to sneak up on them and was baffled at the sight. There, in the luxurious and huge kitchen, Superboy, Kid Flash, Manhunter, Huntress, and Wonder Girl were savaging through everything.

She coughed and all eyes were on her. Veronica just stared. This was not her day. She wasn't really familiar with any other heroes outside her trainers. Bart wasted no time and the speedster was quickly at her side.

"Hey. I'm Kid Flash. I saved Catwoman tonight." He smiled at her.

Awkward Silence. Veronica's eyes traveled around the room Superboy and Wonder Girl smiled at her while Manhunter and Huntress just stared. She just grabbed a cookie from the counter and tried going back to the cave. These heroes were too colorful compared to her usual heroes.

"Uh, hi and bye." She wasn't trying to be rude but this was a bit too much for her. Kid flash was determined this was the best day of his life. He got to peep at Catwoman in her night clothes, and save her, and now a total babe just walked towards to him. Bart followed her and started running around her. Veronica was seriously getting annoyed. She was about to enter the cave when she stuck her foot out and punched Kid Flash all the way down the stairs. Everyone came to see what happened.

"Sorry." She muttered with a smile. Superboy laughed a little. Damian glared. Wonder Girl smiled. Everyone was in some sort of weird trance!

"What did you do Drake, hand out invitations?" Veronica was sure Damian didn't like anyone.

"Ignore him. Thanks for the help guys." Tim smiled at everyone around him.

Robin scowled. Whisper just leaned on the same table Damian was leaning on.

Big Mistake.

"What are you supposed to be?" This time she was getting a glare. Was that all this family knew had to do? Kick butt, yell and glare?

"What do you care, troll." She met his glare. She was not going to give in to this midget.

Tim was looking at her and it was bothering her. Everything was bothering her. By now Bart had gotten up and convinced himself she was just playing hard to get and said he had to go. The others followed suite.

Dick, Damian, Stephanie and Tim started to get ready for another outing. Probably to different places, Veronica concluded. She just watched.

"If you don't mind I will excuse myself to clean up the mess the young titans have made." Alfred actually smiled and left upstairs. Red Robin passed by her.

"Hey." He told her. "Didn't know you were into this kind of stuff."

"I needed a hobby." She joked.

"Crime fighting keeps you pretty busy." He replied.

Stephanie threw a batarang at her.

"Let's go. It's your first night out on patrol." Veronica put her mask back on.

"You're both that desperate? He's engaged back off." Damian yelled towards the trio.

Whisper rolled her eyes and Batgirl glared at him. Red Robin just sighed.

"Later." He muttered and left. Batman and Robin soon followed.

"Ready?" Batgirl asked her.

"Yep." Whisper sighed and took off into Gotham's nightfall.

* * *

The night was pretty slow so they stayed on the rooftops surveying.

"Oracle to Whisper and Batgirl. Do you copy?" Barbara's voice rang in.

"Yep."

"We're here, O. Anything new?" Batgirl asked.

"There's a bank robbery right on your guy's street. Have fun with that. I'm here if you two need me. Be careful." Batgirl nodded at Whisper and they jumped towards the Gotham City bank.

Tonight was the first of many nights to come.

* * *

**A/N:** Enjoy. I love Damian and his quotes I mean come on, "Why do you stuff your costume?"


	9. First Time For Everything

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except for Veronica/Whisper.

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay! Please REVIEW! Don't give up on me! I'm seriously trying to put forth a good story!

* * *

**Chapter 9: **First time for everything

_Block his Jab._

_Punch to the cheek_

_Knee to the nose._

_Elbow to the jaw._

_Punch and fracture jaw._

_Punch and crack ribs._

_Kick to the mid-chest. _

… _And he's down. Poor jackass was holding a kid at gunpoint in order to get away from us. Was the money really worth a fractured jaw, three cracked ribs, and four broken ones? It's probably really hard to breathe too. Oops._

Whisper moved alongside Batgirl who just finished up with her bank robber.

"Let's go. Batman doesn't like it when we stick around too long."

Batgirl headed out towards a broken window. Whisper followed.

The bank robbery was the only trouble they had to deal with in the 4 hours they were out. They caught the potential Black Gate prisoners red handed. One of the guys panicked and started shooting. The cops tried reasoning with guy #2 as he grabbed a little girl and positioned the gun right at her. At that point Whisper had had enough. She immediately ambushed the guy and Stephanie had no other choice than to follow. Whisper was sure Dick was going to lecture her on that one. But who cared? That was amazing! She just saved someone's life and captured a criminal! The adrenaline rush was incredible! Tiresome though.

Now Whisper was getting out of breathe. Batgirl had been running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Why wasn't the first rooftop good enough?

"Mmph." She let out as she nearly tripped. Jumping between roofs didn't really come easy to her. Batgirl finally stopped.

"You really let that guy have it." Batgirl looked at her impressed.

"Yeah, Dick and Donna told me to plan and play things out in my head, just in case."

"…"

"…So…What now?" Whisper asked after a moment of silence. Batgirl looked around. The sun was already rising.

"You should be getting home. Don't you have to work in a few hours?"

"Icky." Veronica forgot about that. She had yet another board meeting early the next morning. More like in an hour actually. "Yeah I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

Batgirl smiled at Whisper as she grabbed her grappling hook and made her way towards her apartment. Veronica was so different at times. One moment she could be an educated executive of Wayne Enterprises, the next she would be so immature like the rest of them using words like icky, then she would get into Whisper mood. Which was ultra quiet and serious.

"Batgirl to Batman and Oracle. Whisper's headed home guys and so am I." They didn't answer but Steph knew by now that that meant she was allowed to leave. It had been a slow night anyway.

Flying through Gotham was another amazing first time experience. Veronica was landing on her balcony already wearing an undershirt and tights that were underneath her costume. The undershirt was actually a bullet-proof vest though. Dick wouldn't let her leave without it.

Veronica slipped her mask off and turned the knob leading from the balcony into her room.

_Dammit! Not now._

She felt like screaming. She had to leave to work in an hour and the stupid door wouldn't open! She was tired and hungry and incredibly sore.

_Why won't you open!_ Veronica kept trying to yank the door open.

"Diiiick. How do you unlock a door?" She tried saying through the com link.

"Weren't you supposed to be home about twenty minutes ago, Veronica?"

"I took a little detour, now how do I break into my house?"

Dick sighed and instructed her on the art of breaking and entering.

"Uhhh…" She plopped onto her bed and began drifting into what was going to be a deep and peaceful sleep.

"GOOD MORNING GOTHAM CITY!" Her alarm roared.

"No… five more minutes." Veronica forced herself up.

"Morning, Veronica." Veronica turned around and smiled at Tam Fox.

"Hey Tam. How's Jet doing?" She had left her precious Siberian Husky in the care of Luscious Fox' daughter Tam. Tam was probably the only reason she got the job. Veronica really liked her too. She had been gone for a while though.

"Adorable as always. Are you picking him up today?"

"Yeah." Veronica sighed. She was too tired to talk, think or move.

"Rough night? Or rough date?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later, I have to go work now." Veronica sighed as she started towards her car. This was going to be a long day.

Veronica had managed to get to work on time. She was overlooking some budget plans until she was called to the staff meeting.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the board, I know we've had a few disputes about the head of the company but now you can all rest assure because we are now in the good hands of our new CEO, Mr. Tim Drake Wayne."

_I'm so hearing things. I nee more coffee. _She told herself sighing.

Tim made his way out smiling to everyone. Veronica had to do a double take and nearly choked on her coffee.

_Oh, crap. Long day indeed. _

_ "_Miss Taylin, Mr. Drake-Wayne would like to address the board once you're done." Lucius gave her a stern look.

Veronica wiped her mouth and looked up to see everyone, including Tim, staring at her. He was giving her that same smile Dick always gave her when she did something stupid.

"Sorry." She muttered. Tim continued talking about how happy he was about working with everyone and how he was sure he was going to fix the mistakes that Bruce Wayne had made. That got her thinking. She asked about Bruce Wayne once but never got an answer. Bruce Wayne was always out and partying and had pretty much burned the company to the ground in just a few months. It was pretty odd that no one ever mentioned his name especially since he adopted them.

"Thank you, and again it's going to be a pleasure working with all of you." Tim smiled and excused everyone. Veronica grabbed her things and tried leaving.

"Miss Taylin?" Tim motioned her over.

"Yeah, Tim?" She turned around trying to hide her lack of sleep. He got closer to her and whispered,

"You're gonna have to get used to that now and don't let the old guys catch you calling me Tim. Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure you know by now we're supposed to talk pretty fancy, right?"

Veronica took a slight step back but still whispered, "I kind of figured that out."

"Okay… so are you, you know, making an outing tonight?"

"Yeah! It was so fun! I have to do it again." By now her voice was rising and Lucius Fox interpreted it in another way.

Tim smiled back at her. She was still new to this but she couldn't risk making mistakes like that. He tried getting her to whisper again. (A/N: Pun intended) "Maybe I'll join you tonight."

"Ahem." Lucius cut in giving Veronica yet another look. "Veronica, you should be getting back to work now." He looked at both of them. "Personal business should be addressed after." He let Veronica and himself out. Tim looked out through the window and smiled. Whisper was definitely someone to watch out for and Lucuis Fox kept sounding more like Alfred.

KRASH!

"Ahh!"

"Whisper!"

The lights and air flashed right by her. Gotham's cold night air enveloped her in. She had just been pushed through the top of a 20 story building. By now it was her second week as Whisper. She had teamed up with all her trainers by now, and had been waiting for someone to arrive as her back-up. Tim had gotten there in a matter of seconds. Everything was going good until she bit off more than she could chew. She had tried to take on 4 guys at once, like Red Robin but failed. One of the guys had head-butted her then quickly continued the rest of his assault. Maybe everything was going too well for her. Something had to have happened sooner or later. Dick and Donna were probably right. She wasn't good enough, and now she was paying the price.

"_It was good while it lasted_," She thought to herself. _It shouldn't be long before I hit the floor. Probably in 5…4…3…2…

* * *

_

Alright so there's chapter nine! Enjoy! Do you all think I should make it just Veronica's point of view or continue the way I'm doing it now? Please Review and thank you all for reading!


	10. Awakening

**Disclaimer: **All characters and ideas belonging to DC Comics are there's. Whisper's mine. =P

**A/N:** No reviews again. Do you guys not like the story? Well anyway I've started the template for 6 new stories. 5 of them are Batman related and 1 of them is wrestling related so I'm trying to get those up after I finish with this chapter. So enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Awakening **

"No!" Veronica bolted up from her bed. She was breathing heavily and was covered with sweat. Her whole body ached. What in the world just happened to her? One minute she was about to crash land onto the concrete and now… she was in her room, in some sweats, trying to figure everything out.

Her dog, Jet, turned to look at her and gave a low growl.

She tried getting up and calling Tim but she was in so much pain. Nothing was broken and it wasn't the usual soreness she felt after a night out. Her breathing was coming back to normal as she laid back.

"… will be alright?"

"..Think so, but keep an eye on her."

" … will."

"… Can trust you Tam… tomorrow?"

Veronica leaned on her elbows looking towards the balcony. Was that Tim...? And Tam? Well it was definitely someone with a cape and Tam. What were they doing out there? Most importantly, why wasn't she dead yet?

_Maybe I'm in some weird coma or something. Sounds pretty reasonable._ She closed her eyes and drifted back into unconsciousness.

* * *

"I think she's waking up!"

"Veronica? Veronica?"

"You mean the idiot who nearly fell off a building?"

"Ugh… No… one… likes…. You…Troll." Veronica managed to mutter out. She was in her room again. Now her head hurt more than anything. She groaned holding her head and opened her eyes.

"How are you feeling V?" Stephanie asked her.

"Wh-what happened, Steph?" Stephanie glared at Tim. He sighed

"You called for back up, I came, and you got sprayed with something, and got thrown off the building. We're not sure what exactly you were sprayed with yet, but Leslie said you'll be OK in a few days.

"Ohh, What's Damian doing here? Not really something you want to wake up to." Damian glared at her.

"I'll let you have that one, because I'm pretty sure you won't be patrolling again, wench. I'm just upset that I wasn't the one who threw you off."

"Just shut up." Tim rolled his eyes.

"Please, you're the worst ten year old I've ever met." Stephanie added.

"And you're the easiest. Just ask Drake." Stephanie's mouth hung open. Veronica just ignored them. Tim was glaring, again.

"Leave. Now, before I step on you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Damian, please, just go." Veronica tried pleading with him

"Tsk." He huffed and left.

They were quiet for a few more minutes.

"Do I still have to work? I mean it's like 8 AM."

Tim smiled at her and looked at Stephanie.

"Actually, Veronica, its 8 A.M."

"So then I'm late?" She was really out of it.

"No I managed to get you a few days off until you feel better."

"So then you feel guilty huh?"

Tim looked at her. He really should have been watching her during the fight. But how could she tell. He expected that from Stephanie or Dick, but she was new to them.

"A little." He muttered. "Just lay low for a few days, alright?" He smiled at her and left her apartment.

"Please tell me you're staying?" Veronica turned to Stephanie.

"Well I don't have choice since my ride just left." She joked.

Stephanie had spent the night over. The duo watched T.V. and talked the whole time. Stephanie was the only one who answered all of Veronica's questions. It was mostly about the old Batman and how they all worked together. Then they got to Stephanie's history with Tim. It wasn't all that pretty.

"Yeah, I guess he's moved on now." Stephanie told her looking down.

"How do you know? Have you asked him?"

"… He's engaged." Stephanie spat out. "And he didn't even tell me about it!"

"Wait, what? To who?"

"Tam Fox."

Veronica was dumb founded. Tam? As in her next-door-neighbor Tam? Well that would explain her absence and why they were talking outside.

They continued like that for hours. They slept through the whole day.

* * *

The days had gone by quickly. Veronica was back on her feet in a matter of days. Dick had her train even more. She was becoming better and stronger. Her bond with everyone was becoming even greater. She was always in the Manor, The Cave, the Bat Bunker or the penthouse. She was getting accommodated to her new life style quickly.

"Batman to Whisper. Can you get to the bunker right now?"

"On my way." Veronica left her computer and put on her "work clothes".

"What's up?" Whisper asked coming in behind Batman and Robin.

"We're going on a case and I want you to come." Batman answered as he got into the batmobile.

"Hey, there's only room for two in there." Whisper said thinking about shoving Damian out.

"Yeah, I think you should work on your roof jumping skills." Batman told her as the Batmobile flew off. She sighed and got her grappling hook out.

By the time she found the dynamic duo, they were talking to two guys on a building, with the bat-light beside them.

Whisper landed quietly behind in the corner. The guy who was talking to Batman raised an eyebrow. The other guy just stared.

"Commissioner, this is a new associate, Whisper. She'll be helping us from now on."

Commissioner Gordon nodded at her. "At least this one's not a kid, Batman. Keep her safe and Whisper, welcome to the team."

Whisper stayed silent over looking the city.

She really was part of the team now. Patrolling was a daily thing now. She understood how much Gotham really needed them. Whisper was beginning to think crime fighting was more than just a thrill; it was so much more than that. What they did was saving people, changing their lives, letting them breathe and smile even after the hell Gotham had been through. They were protecting the people of Gotham, and the city itself.

Whisper had a purpose for once. This wasn't something her parents pushed her to do. It wasn't anyone else's choice.

It was her decision, and no matter what happened she had to keep moving forward and put the city before her and keep her new family united. Now she had to go wherever they were going and follow Batman's orders. She was making a difference.

"Whisper. Pay attention." Veronica snapped out of her daze and looked intently at Batman.

"Got it boss. I heard loud and clear."


	11. Origins and Omens

**Disclaimer: **Everything belongs to DC Comics besides Veronica.

**A/N: **Enjoy! For the Babs and Dick fans please check out my newest story, Earth 22. Please review and I'm so sorry for the delay!

**Chapter 11: Origins and Omens**

If there was one thing Veronica loved it was meditating in the bunker because it was usually quiet. **Usually**, that is until Dick starts working on the computer, working out or is anywhere near talking distance. This never really bothered her before. In fact, she talked to him just as much, but for the past hour it seemed as he would never shut up.

"Veronica? Guess what?" Dick could hardly contain his excitement he had just bought Veronica something she would love. She sighed.

"What, Dick?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I got you something!" So that was it. Dick sucked at keeping surprises, now what could he have gotten her?

"What you get me?" She smiled up at him. By now she had gotten up and was now standing next to Dick.

"Alright so it should be getting here in a few days, but you know how I always have you run and jump to wherever you're patrolling?" She nodded. "Well I just solved that problem. Back when I was Robin and then Nightwing Bruce had gotten me bikes. They're crazy fast and I loved them."

Veronica smiled. "A motorcycle? Dick that's great and all but you really shouldn't have. I mean I don't even know how to ride it and… " She took a deep breath "Thanks Dick."

Dick matched her smile "Hey, you're with us…"

"If you'll be staying," Damian cut in. "make yourself useful." He smirked and threw a sword at Veronica. Dick quickly caught it.

"Are you aiming to kill me?" Veronica glared at Damian. "Give me that thing." She took the sword and started sparring with the current boy wonder.

"Damian. Don't injure her too badly. Veronica. Just try to not get hurt alright?" Dick rolled his eyes at the two younger heroes. He decided it would be best to just ignore them and keep working on the computer.

"I'm taking that as an insult," Veronica muttered.

Dick nodded his head. It was going to be a long day. After a full hour of non-stop kicking, punching, and sword fighting Dick was getting annoyed. All he heard was metal clinging together and non-stop insults.

"Hey Grayson… Umm what's going on?" Oracle's face appeared on the screen. Her nose scrunched up at the sight of Damian and Veronica in the background. Dick gave her a tight smile.

"Oh, y'know, training. You never know when you're gonna need a sword." Dick replied as Damian bumped into his chair and lunged back at Veronica.

"Alright. Enough!" Dick yelled. "Excuse me." Dick muttered at Babs. "Damian, Veronica, off of each other now!" Dick picked them off the floor, preventing them from fighting. He let go of Veronica and sent her off.

"That's why I use virtual fights, and I don't make Stephanie spar against someone who wants to kill her."

Dick ignored Barbara's remark and sent Damian back to the penthouse.

"So… What's up?" Dick asked coming back to his chair.

"Well nothing, I was just bored." She smiled.

"Well tonight on the Grayson channel, watch as Dick Grayson, Secretly Batman, goes through files… of horror!" Dick said adding emphasis on the last part.

"Great…"

* * *

"Stupid kid. I should have just stabbed him." Veronica muttered kicking an empty bottle of soda. "Stupid Dick." She kicked it even harder. By then she had walked out of Wayne Tower and was walking around aimlessly. It was getting dark and cold. Where exactly was she? Veronica looked around and noticed she had walked into the darker part of town.

"Where ya' headin' sweetheart?" A dark voice echoed through the dark, empty street. Veronica quickened her pace to the opposite direction from the footsteps.

_3 or 4 morons. I could take them._

The men who had been following her had come out of the shadows and were now directly in front of her.

_I went the wrong way!_ She gritted her teeth together and stopped walking.

"Ain't it late for a pretty little lady like you to be walkin' lonesome?" The bigger man smiled at her. Judging by his stance and position, Veronica could tell he was the headmaster. He was flanked by two smaller guys. On was wearing a red bandana around his head and oversized shirt and jean pants. The other one looked just like him but had a black bandana instead.

Veronica pulled her hands into her black pea coat, her hair whisked around her face. The main guy had pulled out a pocketknife. These guys probably weren't too much of a big deal, but if they weren't going to hurt her then she wasn't either.

Veronica took two small steps back. She had to at least pretend to be scared. The guys were about to close in on her, approaching her slowly. One of them grabbed her bag and threw it on the floor, her costume poking out. Veronica was getting into a fighting stance when suddenly the main guy's eyes grew wide and they all ran away.

_ OK. Weird._ She thought, maybe she looked tougher than she thought. She smirked arrogantly and turned around.

"Dammit. You scared me." She scowled at the masked figure in front of her. So much for looking tough. She sighed.

"Oh you're welcome." Red Robin smiled at her. "Thanks for the thanks." He laughed; Veronica broke her scowl and laughed with him.

"What, are you stalking me?" She asked raising an eyebrow and smirking at him.

"Oh yeah, I'm enamored with you. I can't keep my eyes off of you, and I spy on you when I'm patrolling." He added bringing his hands to his chest dramatically.

"In that case let's go get married; I know this great place in Vegas." She rolled her eyes.

"Aw, man I forgot the ring." Tim laughed leaning against his batcycle.

"That yours?" Veronica asked.

"Yeah, Bruce got me it when I was first Robin." He sighed. Tim could teach her!

"Hey are you patrolling tonight?" She asked shifting in front of him. This time he raised his eyebrow at her.

"Depends, Why?"

"Well, you see, Dick bought me my own 'Batcycle' and I don't know how to ride one, so I was thinking maybe you could teach me so I could ride it when I get it. Pretty please." She smiled at him. Without her boots she was the same height as Tim and that meant she could really pull Tim into doing anything. She had huge, dark brown eyes that you couldn't deny.

"I thought we were getting married." He smiled. "Alright let me just go change." He said descending towards the rooftop.

"Just make sure there are no open windows. You don't wanna give anyone a free show, there, hubby." She yelled. Tim popped down in a matter of minutes.

"No one gets a free show." He smirked at her, handing her his helmet. "Here, just in case." Veronica put it on and sat behind Tim, wrapping her arms around him.

"Cozy." She smiled.

It was a short ride to Wayne Manor, yet it was an amazing sight. Seeing all those colors flash by her was so much better than being in a car. Maybe a motorcycle was a better choice.

"Hey baby birds…" Barbara's voice amplified through the cave. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're just gonna borrow one of Bruce's bikes for a few hours, and one of my old bikes." Tim yelled back leading the way towards the main computer.

"Hey guys!" Stephanie yelled through.

"Training session?" Veronica asked Babs, who they were now next to.

"Yeah, mine aren't as gruesome as Dick's." The red-haired woman joked. Veronica groaned.

"More like Damian's." She replied.

"Tim, are you teaching Veronica how to ride?" Stephanie asked in between breathes.

"Yeah, you wanna come?" Tim asked running to the garage.

"Sure, once I beat. This. Thing. Uff." Barbara looked at the current Batgirl.

"Who gave you permission?" She teased. Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"So riding lessons then some patrolling?" Veronica shrugged.

"I dunno, Steph. I've been following this case with Dick and the bastard, and I really want in on the action." She replied smiling.

"Alright Betty and Veronica, Archie's got the bikes ready outside. Be careful." Veronica and Stephanie gave her a look. "What?"

"I'm so not Betty, and Tim's so not Archie." Stephanie began changing into her street clothes.

"Yeah, Steph's not Betty, Tim's not Archie and I'm not… wait I am Veronica."

"Damian hit you on the head today, V?" Barbara teased.

"Actually he did, it really hurt too. He flipped the sword and hit me with the handle." She replied rubbing her head. Barbara just stared at her.

"It was a joke." Oracle stated slowly.

"Ah…"

"Alright, let's end this awkward conversation and let's go!" Stephanie piped in already walking out, with Veronica following.

* * *

"She learns quickly." Stephanie stated. For the past two hours the trio had been out in an abandoned road teaching Veronica how to ride a motorcycle. Veronica was already riding Bruce's Harley.

"I know." Tim smiled. No wonder Dick had trained her, not only was she persistent and determined, but she was also a quick learner. It only took a matter of minutes for her to start riding motorcycles.

"Wanna race?" Veronica pulled up next to them smiling.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Tim warned her.

"Yeah, you're still on rookie status." Stephanie joked as her phone began ringing. "Uhh… be back in a few." She muttered taking a few steps away.

"Shut up!" Tim turned towards Veronica laughing. She kept revving up the engine. "You learned, so now what do we do?"

"Hey, I gotta go. I'm meeting my mom for dinner." Stephanie walked back to the small group. "Can I borrow one?" She smiled at Tim.

"Sure. So we're not patrolling together then?"

"Well I'll catch up with you guys later, See you." Stephanie drove off. Tim looked at Veronica.

"So, what now?" Tim asked looking after Stephanie. Veronica shrugged.

"Sit back, relax and enjoy the pollutionized sunset." Not waiting for a reply she plopped down on the dirt road. Tim rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. "Wanna play a game?" She turned her head slightly, resting on her hands.

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Nope. Alright, let's play truth or smack." She began.

"Let me guess, if you don't answer the question you get smacked?" Tim looked at her. Veronica had an unreadable expression.

"Uh sure." She shrugged. "You realize I'm making this up as we go right?" Tim nodded; he had figured she would do this.

The young vigilantes spent the better half of the hour playfully hitting each other and whining about how hard the other hit him, while the other laughed.

"Alright, which hero-chick's your.. Favorite?" Veronica smiled as Tim began blushing at the realization of her question.

"Um…" Tim muttered, he was pretty sure one more smack would cause a concussion. "Ow! I was going to answer!" Tim yelled rubbing the area where Veronica had just hit him. She just laughed.

"I just… added a time… limit." She said through giggles. Tim sighed.

"Alright, same question for you." He smirked as soon as she stopped laughing.

"Well…" She began turning her frown into a smirk, "The black-haired green lantern, Geez! Have you seen him? Ohmigosh, green's been my color ever since… Phew! Don't even get me started on that superboy guy!"

"He's really not that great." Tim muttered quietly. Veronica didn't seem to hear him; instead she went into a painfully detailed monologue about how "hot green lantern looks in those tight clothes." By then Tim had realized she was talking about Kyle Rayner and he just wanted a meteoroid to crash down on him. He never wanted to hear about green lantern butts and abs ever again. He had to do something.

"Alright I get it, Kyle's like the hottest dude ever!" Tim unsuccessfully tried imitating her voice.

Veronica laughed. "Kyle, huh?" Tim glared at his feet. Tim knew she was just joking but he still felt, no he couldn't be jealous. He didn't even like her- well he did- but not in that way. Tim didn't even notice the silence.

"It's getting dark." She softly said. She was staring off to the other side; it **almost** looked like she was hiding her face from Tim. "I guess I'll see you later tonight? Well you and Stephanie?" She quickly added with a goofy smile. Tim nodded.

* * *

"It was freezing out there." Veronica tried. Damian had just stormed off after an argument between him and Dick. They had just arrived back from their disastrous encounter at the county jail. Things, Damian, got out of hand as usual and the little troll kept insulting Dick. She felt helpless; it wasn't every day that Dick was this upset.

"Alfred!" Veronica nearly tackled the English man. "I'm so glad you're here. Go work your magic!" She smiled up at the butler and got a weary look in return.

"Miss Veronica is you in need of any medical attention?"

"No! We're all fine, but Damian's an ass and Dick's all upset and I'm going patrolling with Stephanie and Tim! So go help Dick and I'll be back in a few hours, thanks Alfie!" Not waiting for a reply she finished her rushed speech with a kiss on the cheek and ran towards the bunker's exit.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late. Nice binoculars by the way. " Whisper quietly landed on the roof where Batgirl was surveying a building next to the dock.

"Yeah, you're only an hour late." Batgirl rolled her eyes. "Where's the good 'ol Alvin Draper anyway?" She said not looking back.

"Umm... if you're talking about Tim, I have no clue. So what's going on down there?" Whisper crouched down next to Stephanie.

"Major drug trade. Why is your mask turning green?"

"I'm setting it up so I can see down there. It has night vision and whole bunch of other things too." Veronica smirked as Batgirl began standing up. "Can your cowl do that?"

"Oh shut up." She smiled back. "Alright now's as good as time as any. I just alerted the police so let's do this quickly."

"Batgirl, Whisper. Well done kids." Commissioner Gordon complimented the two retreating heroes.

"You're it!" Stephanie swooped behind a breathless Whisper and punched her lightly on the back. After a half hour of roof top tag they finally decided to take a much needed break.

"You hit that guy pretty hard back there." Veronica implied as the two sat side-by-side.

"That's the fun part." Stephanie smiled. "It's just that you weren't hitting them hard enough. Whisper frowned.

"If they weren't going to hurt me than I wasn't going to hurt them."

"Yeah, but they're criminals V, they deserve everything they get."

"Alright not all 'criminals' are bad!" Veronica was now yelling, her lips a thin straight line.

"OK, sheesh, calm down. What's your problem?" The blonde looked at her friend suspiciously. Something had definitely clicked.

"Sorry." She muttered. "It's just that some have no other choice, when it comes to supporting their family and stuff. And it's not like they were killing anyone. They have families who care about them and who are scared something's going to happen to them." By now her voice was barely audible. "People who care about them, no matter what they do." Batgirl didn't know what to think of her sudden outburst, she sounded so hurt, almost as if she had experienced it firsthand.

"Let me guess, evil dad?" Batgirl sighed; she definitely had experienced that first hand.

"Hmph, he wasn't, he isn't evil. He just wanted a better life for us. I guess that's why he pushed me so hard." She tried smiling. "It was just a stupid mistake, but we all had to go through it once we had visiting hours to see our own dad."

"Hey it's OK V, trust me, I understand. My dad was the cluemaster." Stephanie rolled her eyes and put an arm around her friend. "That's why I started this whole thing as spoiler."

"Oh I get you were the spoiler because you spoiled stuff?" Veronica quietly stated.

Stephanie started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Hey look who it is! Red Robin himself!" She mocked answering her communicator.

"Sorry I'm on a case, maybe next time?" Tim's voice rang through their ears.

"Alright, see you." Stephanie replied.

"Be careful, Timmy." Veronica sniffed.

"You alright V?"

"Bye Red Robin!" They both replied laughing.

"I think I'm going to my apartment I have a dog waiting for me at home." Veronica smiled jokingly. "I think Damian's had enough of me sleeping in the guest bedroom at the penthouse too."

"Yeah, I have to do my homework. Good thing tomorrow's Monday!" She rolled her eyes. "Sweet Green Lantern dreams." She mocked leaving Veronica with her mouth wide open; she was going to kill Tim.

* * *

_Knock Knock Knock_

"_Ugh… go away I'm sleeping!"_ Veronica muttered at the knocking noise. She was too sleepy to care. The loud crash finally woke her up.

"OK what the hell." She cursed, grabbing the remote control following her dog. "Oh my god." Her eyes grew wide. Tim! She ran towards her balcony and gasped at the sight in front of her. Tim was lying on the floor bleeding and seemingly not conscious.

"What did you get yourself into?" She tried carrying Tim over to her bed. "Please tell me you're not dead." She muttered already calling Alfred and Dick.

"We should take him to the penthouse Alfie." Dick stood over his broken brother.

"He is better off with as little movement as possible, master Richard, of course if Miss Veronica won't mind." He replied.

"No, No of course not!" She rapidly added. "It's cool, there's another bedroom."

"Well then maybe I should stay to keep an eye on him!" Dick whined.

"Richard, I trust Veronica can look over Timothy just as well as you can now please we must leave the young sir and miss to rest." Alfred sternly said. He left Veronica careful instructions and departed.

"wuh.. wuh… what's goi- goin' on?" Tim tried sitting up. Veronica had been at his side for the past hour since he started whimpering.

"You're fine. You're at my apartment. Now that you're awake Alfred said you'll be fine just a broken hand, some blood loss, and a few bruised ribs. Just rest and stuff." She tried smiling. "Oh and you can't stay asleep for too long just in case it's a concussion."

"…. Ha…. Nurse Veronica." Tim tried smiling.

"Oh shut it, all I have to do is smack you over the head and in you're in a coma." She teased. Tim just smiled. "So how about those Knights?"

"If you-you're trying to to keep me aw-awake then no football."

"Well… um… Why don't you tell me about your past cases?" Tim face immediately lit up. Veronica smiled as Tim, as best as he could, began rambling about his past adventures with Batman…

* * *

"Mph… Crap." _What was going on now?_ Veronica thought to herself. Something was making her dog bark and it would not let her sleep, well that and the stiffness in her neck.

Veronica's eyes flashed open. " Tim?" She quietly asked standing up from the uncomfortable chair she had fallen asleep on. _Oh no, I fell asleep. _"Tim!" She yelled switching the bedside lamp on. By then Tim was on the other side of the bed leaning against the wall covered in sweat.

"What in the world are you doing?" She yelled quickly coming to his aid.

"I… well I didn't… want to wake you… I wanted some water." Tim added resisting her help. "I can… do it myself." Veronica was struggling to help him; Tim just kept pushing her hands away.

"Tim... I swear I'll hurt you if you don't let me help, Oh!" She breathed as she grabbed a hold of Tim as he nearly lost his balance.

"..Sorry… I guess I… I really need help. He said quietly." By now they were in an awkward, close position. Veronica's hands were wrapped around his waist while one of Tim's hands was on her shoulder and the other trying to grasp the wall.

"Tim… Uh…Um… We should try to get you back to the bed." _That didn't even sound like my voice. _She thought.

"Yeah." Tim breathed. "We should." He said it but he didn't even move an inch. "You… You're gor- gorgeous, Veronica."

This wasn't going to turn out good, she knew it. She should just break out of their weird trance and just help him lie back down and just forget this moment ever happened. But why couldn't **she **move. It was like she was paralyzed or glued to that spot, it was as if the only thing she could see were Tim's eyes.

The adrenaline in Veronica was pumping, her heart beat was getting faster as Tim's face began coming closer to hers. _This shouldn't be happening._

Tim's lips met Veronica's. Veronica was consumed with the warm feeling taking over her, nothing else mattered. Seconds soon became minutes, friendly aids became passionate embraces.

_**Now there was no turning back…**_

* * *

Okay, this was definitely on my original plans. So how did you guys like it? Shocking or completely predictable? Don't worry things will not be all mushy from now on, things will only get more exciting. =) Thank you so much for reading.


	12. Animal's Day

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, except for Veronica and Whisper.

**A/N:** Alright I finally got to this part! Please review it makes my day. Comic-Con was great.

_"No the other one…"_ Tim raised an eyebrow and looked at the sleeping figure next to him. By the sound of it Veronica talked in her sleep. He felt his face burning up again at the sight of her covered only by a bed sheet. He never felt guiltier in his life. Batman trained him better than to be overtaken by one moment. He let his guard down… He and Veronica weren't even in a relationship; he probably just wrecked their friendship. Unless… No. This whole thing was just a mess.

Veronica groaned and began pushing herself up. She turned right side up and her eyes finally landed on Tim. He would of laughed at how lost she was if it were any other scenario.

"Oh." She simply said, the past events returning to her. "How are you feeling?" She slowly asked.

"Better." He said. This was silly, they were two grown up people, and she could look him in the eye. She continued to look everywhere but his face, and well the rest of him. Tim took a deep breathe.

"Look, I'm really, really sorry. I-I don't know what came over me… I just… There are no excuses. I'm sorry, if you never want to see me and if you want me to leave right now I will." Veronica tried not to laugh, Tim was such a dork at times. He looked at her with a nervous look.

_Right, I haven't answered him. What do I say? He can't leave, he's injured._

"Umm... You, you're not in any condition to leave, Tim." She tried saying. "I, um, well…" She had no idea what to say to him.

"Do you… regret last night?" Tim blurted out. Veronica was taken aback by that question, did she regret it? She leaned on her side and faced him. He looked back at her just staring at her with a curious expression. Tim's long, black hair made it past his ears, his blue eyes scanning hers. He wore the bandages Alfred had put on him on one side of his body, the other half of his toned upper body was bare. She probably didn't look that much different. She knew her hair was a mess and that the only thing covering her bare body was the bed sheet her and Tim were sharing.

She didn't regret it.

"The truth? I don't, Tim." Veronica said meeting his eyes. Tim's eyes lit up. "Do you?"

"Well that depends." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Depends on what?" She asked.

"It depends if …." Tim sighed impatiently and grabbed a hold of her hand. "I don't want this to be just a one night stand Veronica. Maybe it can be something more?" He nervously added. Veronica's eyes grew wide. _Well so much for the traditional way. _She thought. She stared blankly at him. Tim was growing even more nervous by the second.

"What?" She said in an awkward way. His grip tightened on her hand.

"I am trying to say that, maybe we should try to…. Well maybe start a… relationship?" Tim looked as if he was going to be sick. Veronica's mouth looked like a little "o". He couldn't be serious. Tim was… well not only was he her boss but he was… well he was Tim. He was the complete opposite of her. Then there was Stephanie, her best friend, Tim's ex-girlfriend and then Tam. Tam probably had feelings for him too. Could they honestly start a relationship? This would be a huge risk.

Veronica's conscience knew it wouldn't work out but did she care? She cared about Tim and she had feelings for him. Life was all about risks.

"Perhaps we should." She leaned in towards him and met his lips.

* * *

"Dick?" Veronica poked her head in through the penthouse atop of Wayne tower. "Alfred?"

"Miss Veronica, Master Dick requires your services as fast as possible downstairs." The English man inquired rather urgently. She gave a quick nod a raced down towards the bat bunker.

"Dick, what's wrong?" She implied at the sight of her mentor franticly gathering his items.

"I'll explain later just get your suit on now, please." Dick, in full Batman garb, commanded. Veronica wasted no time in changing into her "work clothes". She had guessed that the emergency had something to do with Damian, seeing he wasn't in the car, and she was sitting in Robin's usual seat.

"Is Robin in trouble?" She asked slipping her mask on as the Batmobile hovered over Gotham City.

"Yeah the little genius decided to go after Pyg himself." Even though the batcowl covered most of his face, Veronica could tell how annoyed Dick was at this moment. Who wouldn't be annoyed, though, if their 10 year old psychotic, murdering brat went after another psychopath?

"Do you think Pyg had something to do with Toad's 'sudden' death?" During their disastrous fight at the police quarters someone, or something, had managed to get into Toad's cell and murder him. Dick simply shrugged.

"Not necessarily." He muttered. Whisper just waited for him to continue but he never explained himself.

"Ah, a circus. Joy." She sighed quietly hopping out of the Batmobile side-by-side with Batman.

"Robin." Batman said running towards a short, chubby guy wearing no shirt who was now shirtless standing over a seemingly- knocked out Damian. Batman quickly interfered with a swift punch followed by a swift side kick from Whisper. This guy really wasn't that much of an issue.

"Oh Batman, I am not dressed and I didn't do anything wrong!" Professor Pyg unsuccessfully tried to protect himself. His plead was only met by two fists belonging to the Dynamic Duo.

"Besides the fact that you came alone and did no research, you did a good job." Batman tried smiling at his young protégé.

"What are you even doing here?" Robin asked.

"Partners, remember?" Veronica decided to let them have their moment.

"Did you just save my life?" The ten-year old asked rather quietly.

"Batman. Robin. Um Whisper." Commissioner Gordon greeted the unlikely trio.

Batman and the commissioner continued talking about recent happenings like the virus Pyg tried spreading, the antidote, and yet another Domino that had been found. That was odd. They had found a case full of Dominoes when they first tracked down Toad then another once Toad was killed.

"Alright let's get out of here." Whisper and Robin simply gave the Dark Knight a long look.

"He's sitting on your lap." She implied quickly taking the passenger seat.

* * *

"So we agree, from now on its Robin and Batman?" Veronica rolled her eyes yet again. She was getting of listening to Damian talk. They had just crashed through a window as a warning for some guy named Le Bossu. She just sighed. It had been an interesting day to say the least.

"So, Whisper, are you joining us or are we dropping you off?" Dick interrupted her current thoughts. She turned towards him and Damian immediately glared at her. They ended up sharing a very small seat. Damian had made it pretty clear he carried knives and grenades.

"I say we drop her on the street." Damian suggested.

"Oh you mean like what your mom did with you when you were born?" Veronica glared at him.

"Okay we'll drop you off at the bunker." Dick quickly drove to the entrance of the bat bunker.

"Bye and thanks Dick." Veronica waved slipping her mask off, clipping her cape off and clicking her utility belt off.

"Hey Alfred do you mind if I eat something here?" Veronica asked reaching the massive kitchen.

"I already made you your favorite sandwich Miss Veronica. Perhaps you should join Master Timothy in his bedroom." Alfred inquired.

"Tim's here?" She tried hiding her excitement. The butler simply nodded handing her food and escorting the young woman to his charge's bedroom. "Thanks Al." She smiled sitting on the chair in front of the bed.

"Hey!" Tim smiled up at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I just got back from helping Dick and Damian. Damian wants to kill me again." She said smiling. "How are you feeling?"

"Great. Yeah, so you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Well I have work in the morning and I'm on a case with Dick but I'm free during midday."

"So do you want to hang out?" Veronica tried hiding her laughter; Tim was terrible at this stuff.

"Sure Timmy. So I'll see you tomorrow?" She said walking towards him.

"Yeah." He smiled. She leaned down a kissed his forehead.

"Ick. Bruce Wayne really does know how to blow money away." Veronica sighed looking over the Wayne companies' plans and money spent. He was giving away a billion dollars a week to different charities. Sure it was a good cause but he was going to drive the company to the ground if he didn't control his money right.

Veronica sat back rubbing her eyes. She hated her job. It was way too stressful. Especially when she had more important things like the Toad case and all those Dominoes. Could everything be connected? But why would such a weird group of people with no connection once so ever get together? And then what about all the dollotrons Pyg had made? Where they going to survive? If anything happened to them it was partly her fault. She could have done more to help.

Veronica decided it was time for break. She began getting up when she saw a an extra window on her laptop labeled "Todd, Jason". Who the hell was Jason and why was Tim looking at his file?

_I should probably disconnect this flash drive. It wouldn't hurt to see just another criminal's page…_

**TODD, JASON….**


	13. Age Smage

Disclaimer: The only thing that is mine is Veronica.

It was dark. His cigarette was the only source of light and yet she could tell his back was turned. It always was. He could never face her. He never would. That was just the type of person he was.

"What do you want?" He said through a cloud of smoke. His voice was as cold as ever. He slightly turned to her, awaiting an answer.

"I-I. I don't know."

"Ha." She could almost see the smirk behind the crimson red hood. He turned back again, overlooking the city they were crazy enough to call home. She stared too.

"You shouldn't be here."

"Neither should you." He completely turned to look at her with an intense stare that was a mix of anger and interest that only he could do. "Stop that." She said annoyed. He didn't. She tucked her hair behind her ear as he continued to circle her.

"He'll… they'll know you've been with me." He whispered coolly into her ear. She shivered. His voice was colder than ice.

"So?" He grabbed a hold of her. She glared at him, their face only inches apart.

"You get hurt when you play with fire, Veronica." She flinched; his tight grip was still the same.

"You wouldn't do that, Jason."

"How can you be so sure?" His voice taunted her. Veronica's frozen breathes reflected on his hood. She reaches up to him grabbing a hold of the ridiculous mask. Jason tightened his grip, but she proceeded to take the red hood off. Her eyes were met with a sinister smirk and a crimson red domino mask.

"See what I mean?" He simply smirked. She looked at him puzzled. She looked down and instead of the bright red hood in her hands, it was her crimson blood.

"Of course Mr. Fox. I'll be right on that. It'll be finished in two. Thank you." Veronica Taylin sighed. Why did she just promise the company's CEO a complete budget summary of the past 3 years in _two hours_?

"You do realize it's eight 'o clock right?"

Veronica plopped down on her chair. "I so heard you." Her eyes followed the dark figure walking towards her. He swiveled her chair around, facing her. "You ever heard of a door, Tim?" He ignored her remark and smiled down at her.

"Are you going to be able to make it? I mean we can always reschedule, you'll probably be too tired in the morning if we go out tonight." He asked beginning to get worried. She nearly laughed. Veronica stood up, placing her hand on his cheek.

"I'll make it but only if you leave now and let me work." Tim gave her a nervous smile and leaned in towards her.

"Someone's coming." He took a few steps back.

"Veronica, here some more files I found and Mr. Fox would like a word with you." Alana, the secretary, gave her a look and proceeded to hand her the papers and leave. Lucius Fox walked in after her.

"Timothy. What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see the new budget plan." He said coolly.

"That won't be settled until next week, Mr. Wayne." Veronica replied taking a sip of her drink. "What can I help you with, Mr. Fox?"

"I'd like to set a meeting with the board and the financial branch, including you. The meeting will be in 2 weeks and we'd like the new budget plan by then." Lucius sat down.

"2 weeks?" Veronica raised an eyebrow. Her team was just asked to create a new plan.

"Maybe that's a little far-fetched." Tim walked towards Lucius.

"No, we can make it happen. I mean it'll take some extra hours and the whole team on board, but it's manageable." Veronica said nodding her head.

"Great, and rest assure you will all be paid overtime and if things go great there might be a promotion for Ronald." Lucius was already walking out.

"He deserves it." Veronica muttered."

"Timothy, should we go over the Gotham Knights business?"

"Yes, I'll be in your office in 5 minutes." Tim responded taking a seat in front of Veronica. Tim smiled and waited for Lucius to exit. "Looks like you're going to be busy."

"Tim, I'm not canceling our date tonight and that's final. Now go get my iPod and my hair tie from my bag." She teased.

"Yes ma'am." Tim handed her the items and exited her office.

Dick looked…. Disturbed, to say the least. Things had not been easy for him as Batman, but he actually looked stressed and Damian looked even angrier than usual.

"So where are we heading to?" Veronica asked while suiting up. Dick looked at her and sighed.

"Look Vee, you're doing great, but we're dealing with some really dangerous people this time. Why don't you help us out by doing some research?" Dick tried smiling at her. Veronica glared at him.

"Oracle can do that Dick. I wanna go out!" She threw her hand in the air dramatically. "I mean can't I at least know who, or what you're dealing with?" She replied.

Dick debated for a while.

"Alright, his name's Jason, Jason Todd and his sidekick. Then there's this Flamingo guy."

"Hardly a threat, but I think you're actually worse off than they are." Damian glared at her. "We don't want you messing up _our _mission." Damian jumped in behind Veronica. "We don't need beginners."

"Whatever Damian, I wasn't speaking to you." She muttered. Jason Todd. The guy she read about. The guy she had dreamt about. She shivered. The way she saw it, he was bad news and maybe it was better for her to sit out.

"So what do you need me to look up?" She sighed. Dick gave her a small smile.

"Flamingo and Scarlett. I want anything you can find on them."

Dick and Damian had left her alone in the bunker. She didn't bother researching, she just called Oracle.

"I'm more of rock n roll kind of person, to be honest." Veronica smiled at Tim as he held the door open for her. "I just don't see how rap music can compare to Zeppelin or GNR!"

Veronica had finished her work by ten o' clock the next day and Tim had picked her up at eleven. They had walked around talking about music for a while and made it to the restaurant.

Tim smiled. He loved how Veronica could make the simplest of things into an enthusiastic conversation.

"How was your day?" He asked.

"I've had better ones." She mumbled. They both stayed quiet for a while, looking around the restaurant. She sighed. "Look Tim, the other day you left a flash drive in my computer and there just happened to be a file open on Jason." She said avoiding his eyes. "I didn't mean to, but I read it." She slipped the flash drive into his hand.

"Crap." Tim said. "Now I've done it.

There was an awkward silence.

"So, um… I heard the food here's great." Veronica tried breaking the silence. Tim met her eyes.

"Did I tell you that you look beautiful tonight?" He said grabbing a hold of her hand.

"Well, you kinda just did." She said blushing. "Smooth moves, Dick give you pointers?" She joked, now Tim was the one blushing.

"No, no. He doesn't know."

"Oh." She said. "So have you lived in Gotham all your life?"

"Pretty much. I knew you didn't remember me from high school!"

"Oh shut up, I so do! You were that math captain." She said laughing.

"Hey there's nothing wrong with that. We won the state champions." Tim said a bit shy.

"My hero."

"I guess I've always just been more mature for my age." He took a sip of his drink.

"Age smage! I've always been told the opposite. I guess we can be considered the same age then." She said smiling.

"I guess so."

"Tim, if anyone calls me a cougar though-."

"It's only 5 years."

"Still, we're changing your age!" She said through giggles.


	14. Date Night In

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day." William Shakespeare.

* * *

Alfred Pennyworth stepped into Veronica's apartment. The young hero had asked for advice on how to patch up her costume. Alfred offered to stop by and fix it for her since she was too busy.

Unlocking the door, the older man walked into the room silently. Well, it wasn't the messiest room he'd ever seen, but it definitely was not the cleanest.

He maneuvered around the clothes on the floor, heading to the closet.

"My word." Alfred opened the closet door, seeing male clothing. Actually it looked a lot like Master Timothy's favorite sweatshirt and those jeans looked like the one's he had gotten him for his birthday. Alfred paused for a minute.

Tim had been absent a lot of the time and he never mentioned where he had been. For the past 6 months Tim had rarely even slept in Wayne tower. Timothy and Miss Veronica?

Miss Veronica was five years older than Tim. Not to mention Tim was her boss. Alfred shook his head. Whatever the case may be, they were old enough to know what they were doing. He would just have a stern chat with the young master later.

He reached and unlocked the hidden cabinet behind Veronica's closet. He would also have a chat with Veronica about the importance of cleanliness and the proper way of doing so.

A few days later…

Veronica's eyes fluttered open. She looked to her side and was met with an empty bed.

"Tim?" She called out tiredly.

"I'm in the kitchen!" Came the voice from the hallway. She tried to stifle her laughter. Tim, her Tim, in the kitchen?

"Why? I don't think we want a repeat of last week."

"Don't worry, I just got thirsty." He said entering the bedroom with a small smile. Veronica motioned her head towards the space next to her. Tim quickly lay down next to her, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend.

"Had a nice night?" Tim whispered into her ear.

"Shut up." She said laughing. Tim laughed along with her. He couldn't be happier. Bruce was alive, his best friends were alive, and he had the most beautiful girl to go home to.

"You know something?"

"I like to think I know a lot of things, Tim." Veronica replied. He jokingly rolled his eyes.

"You probably do, but that's not what I meant." He said looking down. "I think Alfred knows, about us. She rose slightly, lying more on top of him.

"Honestly, I think everyone knows." She said smiling. "It's freaking Batman and his allies, and I'm pretty sure I saw a camera in here. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone knew."

"I think it's just Alfred, Vee. He gave me this really awkward lecture the other day about keeping secrets and thinking about consequences." He shrugged. "Which is kind of ironic if you think about it."

"Yeah, secret keeping and possible consequences. It's our thing. If the Batman army ever decides to make business cards that should be our slogan." She joked.

"Batman army? I once suggested Batman Inc. to Batman."

"That's lame.-"

_Knock knock knock._

"Ugh. I'm not here!" Veronica yelled snuggling against Tim. He chuckled.

"You can be so immature sometimes."

"Well you're too mature." Tim rolled his eyes. _Maybe that's why we're great together._

"What if it's an emergency?"

"Dick and company would of comm'ed."

_Knock Knock Knock_

"Veronica."

"You go get it then." She said rolling off of him, smirking. "You might want to put some clothes on first."

Tim stood up grabbing his pants from off the floor.

"You're so lazy." He said tugging his pants on while walking towards the door. "Yes?" He said opening it.

"Hey, do you have any? … Umm, Tim?" Tam fox eyed him nervously.

"Um, Tam. Uh hi." He said wishing he'd put on a shirt before answering. Well this was awkward. They both stood there awkwardly, not sure of what to do.

"…"

"Maybe I should go." Tam said finally breaking the silence.

"Wait, I'm sorry this is really weird, I'll just go get Veronica." He said rushing towards the main room.

"Veronica, get up. Tam-erm- your neighbor needs something." Tim said quickly putting a shirt on. She groaned. "Come on, we'll order some food afterwards."

"I'm going mother!" She said her clothes already on. "Batman boot camp." She said smiling proudly.

"Hey Tam, what's up?" She asked as if nothing happened.

"Um, morning. I wanted to see if I can borrow some laundry detergent." Tam gulped tucking a strand of hair behind her ears.

"Yeah, sure thing. Come on in. Do you want anything to drink?" She said going off to the laundry room. Tim sat on the stool next to Tam.

"Ice tea?"

"No thanks."

"OK, ow." Veronica's faint whisper was heard over the noise of things falling. Tim and Tam both laughed.

"You OK in there?" Tim asked smiling. Veronica poked her head out coughing. She had some sort of blue powder all over her.

"Oh yeah, Tam do you want the one for dark wash or-"She took a look at the detergent. "I guess regular one?"

"Regular one would be fine." Tam responded laughing alongside Tim.

"Give me just a minute, my foot is stuck and something spilled onto it." She said poking her head back in.

Tim and Tam continued laughing, forgetting about the awkward moment.

"So, how've you been, it's been a while." Tim said taking sip of his drink.

"Well, I still have that internship with that Russian guy. My Russian's getting really good actually. Are you still eating things that resemble vomit?" She said smiling.

"Ha Ha. They were egg whites Tam!"

"Alright, so I kind of ran out of powder stuff so here, the liquid regular detergent stuff." She proclaimed proudly.

"Thanks, Vee. You smell really clean." She said standing up to leave with a small smirk on her lips.

"Real funny." Veronica responded walking alongside her towards the door.

"We'll catch up some other time Tim, Bye. Thanks for the detergent, see you later."

"You guys knew each other?" Veronica said closing the door.

"Yeah, her dad and Bruce." He simply said.

"Aw, the daddy connection. I'm going to hit the shower. Why don't we have our date night in after?" She said leaning in to peck him on the lips.

"We've both got patrol today, so don't take long!" He yelled jokingly. His response was a slammed door.

* * *

The rest of their day was spent watching movies and complaining about each other's taste.

"It's 3 hours long, Tim! We've been sitting on our butts all day and I really don't want to sit down for three hours straight."

"You made me watch Superbad." Tim said giving her a stern look.

"It was funny and good." Veronica replied looking through the pile of movies.

"No, Citizen Kane was good, Superbad was just awful."

"You know what fine. Let's just watch the Godfather." She said. Tim made a face. "What? Oh my gosh, you don't like the Godfather." She said shocked.

"No, it's a good movie; I just don't like criminals getting portrayed in a way that people will look up to them." He said shrugging. Veronica stared at him for a while then busted out laughing.

"What's so funny?" He asked wrapping his arms around her. Veronica nodded her head.

"I can't believe you just said that. You're so dorky, it's cute." She replied resting against his shoulder.

"Just what any guy wants to hear." He said sarcastically. "This is nice though." He said. Tim looked out towards the window, the sun was already setting. He sighed once his phone began to ring.

"Do you have to get it?" Veronica asked frowning.

"Yeah, it's Babs. I'm on a case and she said she'll give me any information ASAP." Veronica smirked, waiting for Tim to answer the phone.

"Hey Babs… Really, that's great. Yeah, tonight actually." Tim said eyeing her cautiously. Veronica began kissing Tim. Tim was struggling.

"No! Yes, yes I'm still here. What noise? What? No, I'm not doing anything. Just give me a minute." He said loudly, trying to silently get Veronica to stop. He paused for a minute pulling the phone away from his ear. "Veronica."

"Yes?" She said mid-kiss. Tim finally managed to push Veronica off.

"Just let me finish this call, I'm going to get you back for this." He said giving her a quick peck, putting his arm around her. He returned to his call.

"Sorry Babs. Yeah, business." He coughed. "No, I'm not with anyone! No don't tell Dick. OK fine I'm with a girl." Tim rolled his eyes, Veronica could hear teasing from the other end and Tim was actually blushing.

"No one you know. Yes, I'm aware that you know everything and everyone. Wait, no!" Tim sighed dramatically. "Barbara says hello." Tim said speaking to Veronica. "Why? OK, OK fine!" Tim put the call on speaker.

"Hey Vee!" Barbara yelled through the phone. "Having a nice day, I presume." Veronica face palmed.

"Heeeyy, Babs." Veronica said, slightly embarrassed at being caught.

"So, Veronica and our little Timmy." They were never going to hear the end of it. "Just wait until Grayson finds out!"

"Ok Babs, back to important stuff." Tim said after a very long while of nonstop teasing.

"Oh sorry Mr. Taylin." The red head continued. "Oh yeah, I sent everything else to your e-mail." Tim sighed.

"Couldn't you just have told me that 30 minutes ago?"

"Yeah, but then I found out about you and Veronica. Oops, duty calls baby bird. Later Mrs. Baby bird." _Click._ They both sighed.

"This is your fault." Tim said eyeing Veronica again.

"Hey it's not my fault you can't multi task!" She said getting up and walking towards her room.

"There's a time and a place for everything." He called out, joking." Veronica plopped down on the couch next to him, handing over her laptop.

"We're at the right place, and it seemed funny at the time." She shrugged taking a candy bar off the coffee table. "And you liked it." Tim nearly choked on his food.

"…"

"That's not the point." He said, and Veronica laughed.

"So what's the case about?" She said looking over at the computer.

"Titan's case." Tim said.

"Dick's letting me patrol on my own now." She said proudly. "I mean, nothing big and not any cases and things like that, but hey, it's progress."

"Wow, that's incredible." He said hugging her. They embraced for a while. "I wish we didn't have "work" today though. Between your job and our night jobs we barely get enough time together." He said breaking the hug. He stood up and began to collect his items.

They stood at the door. They kissed.

"I'll see you next week." He said kissing her forehead. "I, um, I."

"I'll miss you too, and I love you too."Veronica said smiling. Tim beamed.

"Yeah, I love you too. Yeah. I'll call you tomorrow." He said with one last kiss. Tim finally left.


	15. Unexpected outcomes

**Disclaimer:** What is DC is theirs and what is mine, is mine.

**A/N:** Hopefully I will be able to finish through this story this summer. Please review and let me know what you think!

* * *

Damian Wayne sighed as he looked out his window. Drake and Grayson were fighting, not that he minded. They could kill each other for all he cared. Wait. Was Drake _finally _leaving? Damian got a closer look. He raced down to the batcave, switching on the monitors. Everything they were saying and doing was now crystal clear. For some reason Drake came back from the Titans and now wants to leave. About time that that disgrace left. Unfortunately Grayson was putting up a fight. It was something about Damian's father. He wasn't really paying any more attention. Hopefully Grayson would buzz off and Drake would disappear again.

"Anything?" Damian stopped walking and turned back to the monitors. Drake actually had the upper hand. He had a staff raised at Dick's throat. How dare him.

"I'm leaving Dick, and I need you to let me go. You called us equals, remember? If we really are equals, if we really are brothers…" Which they weren't. As Damian saw it, they weren't worthy of being related to him. Tim lowered his staff, stepping onto his bike. "Then believe in me, I've earned it. You take care of Gotham. Try not to let Damian destroy everything you and I built as Robin."

Damian heard enough. Once Drake returns, he'll see. Damian was going to prove how much better he is than Drake and Grayson, and Todd and Brown. Damian stormed off back to his room. All he heard was the noise of a motorcycle speeding off.

* * *

Whisper crouched down. Zooming in %150. That did not look good. She adjusted her vision back to normal and watched some more. She was atop of some old apartment building in the bad side of town. This was now _her _turf. She had stopped a few muggings now and then saw a young stripper by the name of Destiny walking alone. Some idiots were trailing her. Whisper watched as they began to chase her down an alley, once she was cornered against a brick wall Whisper swooped in.

"It's the bat!" One of them said. Destiny tried to scream as one of the guys held her down and put a hand on her mouth. So these guys liked weapons.

"Come on sweetie, just leave us alone and we won't hurt you." She stood there, absolutely silent and still. She probably should have made a plan beforehand, though she secretly loved how nervous it made everyone when she was still. The guy holding Destiny had a switchblade up her throat. Swiftly, she threw a Batarang and to her surprise it landed right where the guy was holding the blade.

"Ahhh!" At this point the other two future black gate attendees had attacked. She ducked as one swiped a pipe over her head. The other grabbed a hold of her cape. She jumped over him, covering him with her cape; head butted the one with the pipe and slammed the one with her cape around his head into the wall. Whisper grabbed a hold of the pipe holding it menacingly and glaring at the guy with the bleeding hand. It was now only her, the guy and Destiny, who was panicked at this point.

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!" He tried running only to be met by Whisper's foot knocking him out. Whisper helped Destiny to her feet and surveyed her until she got him safely.

"Nice." A voice ranged through her ears. Whisper simply smiled. "Ah, I see you're going with the whole gimmick thing. Care to tell me when you're turning in?" Whisper frowned. She'd only been out for a couple hours.

"It's only 1!" She whined. Veronica really enjoyed being out on patrol.

"Yes, but Dick asked me to let you know that you are, starting tomorrow, officially on a case with Batman and Robin. Oh and Damian said he doesn't want you slacking off at work tomorrow." Oracle informed her

Whisper froze. Dick actually thought she was ready to go on a case with them? She couldn't believe it.

"Vee?"

"Sorry, I'm just really excited! Tell him I'm already home and that he's the best Batman in the whole wide world."

"Will do. Goodnight Whisper."

Veronica sighed. She was already lying down in her own bed. It was 1:30 and she was due at Wayne ENT. at 7:30. She reminded herself to thank Dick for that later. She couldn't exactly fall asleep. The high from crime fighting mixed with the excitement from being on a case was enough to keep anyone awake. She checked her phone. It was weird. Tim hadn't called her in a week. He'd told her he would see her last Sunday once he got back from the Titan's Tower but she hadn't even heard from him. Veronica stared at the darkness. She was worried. Tim wasn't her priority, but she really did love him. What if something happened to him? Veronica turned to her side again. She was just being silly. Tim knew how to take care of himself and he was probably just extremely busy. She wasn't going to let that bring her down. No, she had so much to be happy about, and she would just talk to Alfred the following night.

She was finally drifting to sleep when something bright burst through her window. Veronica could have sworn it was still night time. She got up to close the curtains on her balcony door when she stood there and smiled.

"Goodnight Dick." She whispered at the Bat signal. She got back into bed and nearly slept through her alarm.

* * *

Out of all the places, she didn't expect to be here after her shift. Veronica looked around. The hotel room she was in had Tim's stuff all over. He'd finally called her and apparently hired someone to bring her to freaking Paris. She only stopped yelling until after the guy threatened to throw off the plane.

Now here she was, sitting in some French hotel room, waiting for her boyfriend who had practically kidnapped her and hoping to meet Batman in time. Heh. That was probably something she'd never thought she'd think either.

"Veronica?" She turned towards the door but no one was there. Tim hopped down from the window.

"It's called a door." She muttered. Tim tried smiling at her, expecting some sort of greeting.

"What the hell are you doing here? Wait don't answer that, I don't want to know." Tim tried to respond. "Couldn't have you just let me know?"

"I didn't have any time. I got into an argument with Dick and I had some important business, but I had to see you."

"You could have at least asked me, Tim." She was pretty mad.

"Sorry, I didn't really think things through. But it doesn't matter now." He took a few steps towards her, rubbing his neck. "Look, I know this going to sound crazy but I'm not going back to Gotham any time soon." Veronica raised an eyebrow at him. "And I don't want to go that long without you. Just stay with me." She was in disbelief. Tim waited for her to answer. It was an extremely awkward silence. "Well?" Veronica shook her head.

"No." Tim froze and could only stare at her

"What?"

"You can't possibly ask to me to just leave my life, which is amazing right now though you didn't even care to ask for, and just run off doing who knows what with you."

"Can't you at least consider it?" Tim tried reasoning with her.

"Why don't you, Tim. I have to go." She began walking out the door.

"Veronica, wait." Tim grabbed a hold of her.

"I have somewhere to be."

"So do I, but I guess I'm just stupid for thinking you'd want to be with me." Veronica glared at Tim. How could he, ugh! She bit her lip and abruptly yanked her arm away.

"Think whatever the hell you want." She wanted to say more. She wanted to yell at him, _no scream_ at him for thinking that. She wanted to tell him how wrong he was, how unfair he was being, but for some reason all she could was glare at him. Tim looked confused and hurt. He quickly composed his self and slipped his cowl back on. Veronica turned around and walked out.

* * *

_Waiting. _That was what had to do until the signal. She'd gotten back from her "trip" and met the dynamic duo just on time. It proved to be a challenge simply focusing on what Dick was telling her but she managed to pull through. She was glad she had something to keep her mind off Tim. She was now helping Batman and Robin with Red Hood and Scarlet.

They had been gone for a while now. Her job was to swoop in, get Scarlet, remove civilians (if they were any) and provide support with dealing with Jason Todd. He still gave her the creeps. Veronica grabbed a candy bar from one of her pouches and began eating it. She was still spying on them. Whisper crouched down (she loved doing that in her suit). Things weren't looking so good for Batman and Robin. In fact, Red Hood and Scarlet had the upper hand. Well them being kidnapped was not in the plan. She watched closely. The Red Hood's vehicle started up and she was quick to follow.

The vehicle finally came to a stop. Whisper stayed a few buildings behind, staying clear of the light. She watched as Batman and Robin were carried inside. She waited until they were both completely inside and slowly, and silently, made her way to the building. _Looks like backdoor it is._

She maneuvered downwards towards the backdoor. Once she made sure it was clear, she picked the lock.

"What was that?" She heard. _Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Don't panic. OK. OK. Grappling hook, right. Where is it? Oh crap. Fighting face on. I can do this. I can do this! _

She continued her pep talk until she caught a glimpse of Scarlett. Scarlett was impulsive and didn't like to waste any time. She ran at Whisper with her fist aiming at her face. Whisper waited until last minute and leap frogged over Scarlett, sweep kicking her once she landed. Scarlet threw something **very** sharp at Whisper's head and she managed to move out the way. Scarlett jumped back up and landed some punches on Whisper. Veronica was getting tired of it. She stopped Scarlett's oncoming punch and head-butted her so hard that Scarlett's mask cracked. Whisper followed with a swift elbow to the throat, finally flipping Scarlett over. Whisper grabbed batarang from her utility belt. She crouched down and grabbed a hold of Scarlett, sitting her up and placing a Batarang to her neck. Whisper placed her bloody lips to Scarlett's ear.

"Where are they?" She whispered.

"I'll show you exactly where they are." That was not Scarlett. Whisper stood up quickly, but before she could get up, something hit her head. She was met with the cold, hard floor.

* * *

It was cold, it was bitterly cold. She could even feel it through her suit. Her whole body was painfully numb and the back of her head was wet. Whisper slowly opened her eyes. Everything was blurry; she could barely make things out. She tried to push herself up, only to make herself even dizzier. She heard a sigh.

"Don't bother trying to get up."

It sounded groggy to her. She only hear d that voice once. It was the voice that spoke before she was knocked out. It could only be the voice of one man: Jason. As she regained some of her conscious she noticed she was outside and the voice's figure had his back to her, overlooking Gotham. Why did this seem so familiar?

"You'll get your sight and hearing back in a few minutes."

Whisper ignored him and tried pushing herself up.

"Fine, hurt your damn self."

Veronica staggered to her feet, having trouble staying up.

"Where are they?" She tried sounding intimidating. He didn't move. He stayed frozen with his back turned. It was too dark for her to see the ground; in fact the only visible light she could see came from his cigarette. _Her dream, this was exactly like her dream._ Veronica gasped in realization. He looked at her from the corner of his eyes; he only had his domino mask on.

"You're not even prepared for this, what the fuck were they even thinking?" He said in a low voice. He turned around slowly, taking slow, long strides closer to her. She tried walking back, but was still dizzy. He had a firm grip on her now. Whisper was terrified. "You don't look so good." He said with what kind of resembled a smirk. "I won't hurt you."

"Why?" She muttered. _Could I ask a stupider question? _She mentally berated herself. Jason simply stared at her. It was making her uncomfortable. She gulped.

"I could have been better." He said softly. Veronica stared at him bewildered.

"Uh, what?"

"You asked why, I could have been better than Grayson and I'm proving it." His grip tightened and she winced. They were both silent. Jason continued to stare at her. She was attractive. The wind was making her long hair fly and her cheeks red. He would even call her _beautiful._ "Why?" Veronica had the same puzzled look.

"Why are you doing this, you could easily be killed. Is that what you want?"

"I… I want to do this, and no one is better at this than Dick." She pushed Jason off her and took a few steps back. She was getting angry and all he was doing was staring like a dumbass. He raised an eyebrow and took a deep breath. Red Hood didn't take so kindly to getting compared to Dick.

"Look, I'm just trying to give some advice. It seems like fun, and then you just get killed off in a long, painful way only to be treated like fucking dirt after!" Jason began to pace and tried to calm himself down. He took his mask off and looked straight into her eyes. "This world, this world is ridiculously twisted and cruel and it doesn't give a damn. No one will care about what happened to you. Your closest "friends" will turn on you and you'll be left either dead or with nothing. Death doesn't even end it, because you'll just come back to face this shit hole all over again."

Veronica stared into his crystal blue eyes. There was so much pain in Jason's voice. He wasn't the person who had kidnapped Dick, Damian and herself, he wasn't a psychopath, he wasn't heartless, he wasn't who Tim, Barbara and Dick warned he would be. He was just hurt beyond reason and he actually cared.

"Hood… Jason. It doesn't have to be that way." She walked towards him and sighed. "You probably get enough of that already. I get you… I do. We could have been great together, huh?" Veronica smiled sadly. She saw how vulnerable and angry he really was. She felt that anger too. Why would anyone do this to him?

Jason laughed without humor.

"Just do me a favor and go home, Veronica."

"Just do me a favor and don't hurt Dick and Damian."

"… Your belt's behind the door." She turned towards the door and quickly got her things, walking towards the edge of the tall building.

"I'll see you soon Jason."


	16. Worries and Promises

Veronica's grunting and exasperated breaths could be heard throughout the bunker. She was upset, she was confused, and she was tired. The poor punching bag was the one paying for her stress. Kick, after kick, punch followed by more punches.

"Hey, you OK?" A mature feminine voice asked her. Veronica snapped back into reality. She looked up; it was Donna Troy holding her "captive".

"Hey Don." Veronica wiped the sweat from her forehead and took a big gulp from her water dispenser. Donna eyed her suspiciously and walked around the punching bag, leaning on the medical table in front of the other woman. "How's it going?" Veronica asked, taking her gloves off and throwing them on the ground abruptly.

"I don't think Alfred will appreciate that very much." Veronica shrugged and picked them off the ground, throwing them on the table besides Donna. "You don't look so good."

"I was just working out."

"You know what I mean." Veronica looked at the floor. Was it always tile? She carefully observed the new, and probably expensive, form of each individual tile. She knew exactly what Donna meant; she could read anyone like an open book. Veronica sighed and met Donna's warm blue eyes.

"Boys are stupid." Donna rolled her eyes and Veronica gave her a small smile.

"I'm going to guess relationship issues?" Veronica gave her a nod. "You and Tim had a fight?" Veronica's eyes got wide.

"How did you even know?"

"Oh come on, it was so obvious, and I flew by your apartment one day and I saw you two together. But that's not the point. What happened with you two, you seemed happy?" Donna crossed her arms expectantly.

"It's just, well I think its Tim. And me. He just left one day, I don't even know why. I really don't want to ask Dick, it's hard enough for him already. I saw him, well he sent for me. In Paris. He was different, desperate, upset, angry, lost. I've never seen him that way. I don't know. He wanted me to just run off with him. I was so mad, I guess I did sort of overreact, but he wasn't being fair. I have a life. I said some things, he said some things." Veronica bit her lip and looked back up at Donna; she had a reassuring look on her face. She took a hold of Veronica's hand.

"Tim's been going through a lot of stuff these couple of years, especially now that Bruce is gone. He's hurt and he needed you, Veronica. But he's being unreasonable with you. No one can tell you to just drop your life for someone, no matter how much you care about them. Soon he'll understand and it'll work out. Maybe it won't work out in the way you both want, but it will be for the better. Relationships are complicated but we all get through them OK." Veronica gave her a small smile, she needed to hear that.

"What else is bothering you, Hun?" Donna raised an eyebrow, Veronica still looked bothered. She took a deep breath.

"A lot." Veronica walked towards the stairs and sat down on the first step. She ran a hand through her messy, wet hair. "How do you know what you want in life Donna? How do you know if you're satisfied? Are we going to do this forever? Are we even going to be able to? I mean, what do we do even do after?"

Donna stared at her blankly and stood in front of her.

"Well, we all want different things. I always thought I would be married, retired, raising a family and photographing again by this time." Donna looked down sadly. "But things change. We do this because we know we were meant to do this and because it's our destiny. We have to be completely dedicated. We do this for as long as we love it and feel the need to. It's something that you have to be completely sure about, once you're not then it's time to move on to what your heart truly wants." Donna put a hand on Veronica's shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Where did that come from anyway?" Donna asked.

"Nowhere really, well I just met someone who made me think. I don't know, just forget about." Veronica muttered and remained silent. Donna stayed there, she had a feeling Veronica still wanted to say more.

"…"

"Donna?"

"Yes?"

"What's Paradise Island like?"

"It's wonderfully amazing."

"Corny, but I understand. Do you ever wish you could go back to living there?"

"All the time, but I have a new home now." Veronica looked at her. She admired Donna to no avail. Donna was truly perfect in her eyes. Donna looked back at her thoughtfully.

"Who _did_ you meet?"

Veronica froze. She wasn't sure telling her about her little chat with Jason was the best idea. He was considered a criminal to everyone else. But Donna probably didn't even know who he was, much less his strong ties to the others. What the hell.

"Umm. Jason."

"Jason? What does he do, or what did he say?

"Well, I guess, well, he's, um."

"Wait; please tell me you are not talking about Jason Todd!" Huh. Apparently she did know him.

"What happens to me if I say yes?" She gulped.

"Veronica. He could have seriously injured you! With Jason you never know. One moment he's the hero and the next the villain. Are you insane? What did Dick say?" Donna seemed angry.

` "Geez calm down! It's not like I married him. Dick doesn't know, and he's not like that." Veronica snapped back. Donna stared at her in disbelief.

"Why are you protecting him?"

"I'm not; he's just not what you all think he is."

"You met him for 5 minutes; you don't know what he's capable of."

"You didn't see what I saw." Veronica tried to calm herself down and took another deep breath. Donna tried doing the same.

"OK, whatever, that's not the point. What did he tell you to make you all upset and think about all that stuff?"

"He's different Donna. He was trying to warn me but he looked hurt, like Tim, but so much worse. He wasn't trying to hurt me; I don't think he would ever do that." Veronica seemed daze. Donna sighed. She'd been there.

"He may be. Look, I worked with Jason a while ago too. He was just like how he was with you. Caring, brave, and of course hurt. He may still be the Jason we all knew deep down, but he's still dangerous. He'll just snap back and abandon, or worse, hurt you. Shh. I'm not berating you, I'm just warning you. Just be careful alright?"

Veronica stayed quiet, maybe Donna was right. Or maybe Donna was wrong. Veronica shook her head.

"OK I will, can I just ask you one more thing?"

"Anything."

"What does it feel like to die?" Donna was taken back. She'd been asked that question many times, but it always stunned her. She rubbed the back of her neck and cleared her throat.

"Wow. Well, I guess it's different at the beginning depending on how. But the end is always the same. It's kind of this really warm yet cold feeling. Kind of like getting poured with really hot water when you're cold. Then it's just nothing, blank, it's just empty." Donna stayed silent for a while after that. Her deaths still haunted her.

"I'm sorry; I probably shouldn't have asked you that."

"No, no it's fine. Really. I'm fine." Donna shook her head and smiled. "You're all better now?" Veronica smiled back.

"Yeah, thanks so much Donna." Veronica stood up and hugged the amazon. Donna hugged her back. "But I think I have to go settle something now. I know I've been a pest but can you do me one last favor?

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Can you drop me off in Paris?"

"Mr. Draper! Mr. Draper!" Alvin Draper stopped walking, waiting for the man behind the hotel counter to catch up to him.

"Yes?"

"You have a guest in your room." The much older man said, adjusting his tie. His kind of reminded Alvin of Alfred.

"A guest? Did you catch his name or anything?"

"Her. It was a young woman; I believe she waits in your room, Sir." The man walked back to the counter and "Alvin" took the elevator to his room. Once he got near to his room, he walked carefully and suspiciously to the door. He moved his hand to his belt, carefully opening the door.

"Tim?"

"Alvin" dropped his weapon quickly at seeing Veronica sitting on one of the expensive chairs. Veronica eyed him. Ah, one of his disguises. Tim quickly took of the face facial hair and cap and smiled.

"Veronica, what are you doing here? I mean no that I'm not glad, you're here. I'm just surprised." Veronica smiled at seeing him ramble she walked towards him and placed both hands on his face. She gave him a soft, quick kiss on the lips. Tim smiled, looking at her beautiful face. He had missed her so much.

Veronica looked at him sadly.

"I think we need to talk." Tim nodded in agreement, seating her on the bed next to him. He didn't like the way she said that. He had a funny feeling he knew what this talk was about.

"Yeah, sure. What's on your mind?" Veronica fiddled with the seams of the bed comforter.

"I'll just say it. Tim, I think, I don't think we should be together at this point in our life." Veronica blurted out. Tim stared at her silently. That had stung.

"I guess I should have expected that since last time." Tim turned away from her. He had a reason to be angry. They could have made it work fine. They could have been perfect together. It could have been like before, like in Gotham. It would have worked out fine.

"Tim?" Veronica placed her hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her hand off. Veronica cringed. "Please don't be angry. Please just let me explain."

"I have to be somewhere, Vee. I think you've explained enough." Tim stared to walk towards the door.

"Tim, wait. Please let me talk! Please." Veronica tried to fight the tears in her eyes. "Tim!" He turned around and stared at her. Oh no. She was crying. He felt even worse.

"Oh no, don't cry. I-I'm sorry, I'm listening." Tim grabbed a hold of her and hugged her. Veronica quietly sobbed onto his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I-I don't want you to be angry with me. Please don't Tim. I didn't want to hurt you. I just- Just. God, why am I even crying?" Veronica said through muffled tears. Tim rubbed her back trying to calm her down. This hurt more than he could ever imagine.

"Why don't you just come back home with me?" She said after calming down. She had been quiet. "I- We didn't want you to leave. Do it for me, please." Tim pulled back and grabbed Veronica's chin with his hand.

"I have to do this. I know you'll understand. I owe it to him. I'm going to bring Bruce back. He's going to love you, as much as I do. Then we'll all be together." Tim tried to smile, but even that was difficult to accomplish." Veronica stayed silent. _Love you as much as I do_. She closed her eyes for a minute.

"But you will come back right?" She whispered.

"Yes, of course."

"Then you'll come back to me?" She smiled sadly. Tim looked into her brown eyes. They were red and swollen. He even felt like crying. He simply nodded and kissed her on last time.

"I promise."


	17. Best Person Ever

"Faced with "financial irregularities", I decided to investigate where no one else had been mean enough to try. Among our many contributions…" _How cute, he actually did consider himself mean_, Veronica thought to herself. Normally she would take any opportunity to get her mind of things but having to listen to Damian lead another meeting wasn't exactly Disneyland. She had enough of him already. She looked at the clock. _9:45_. it was too early to think. She stared at the window, there was a smudge. She had been trying her hardest to keep focused. She had been trying her hardest to keep together. Veronica missed Tim. It was weird not having him in her life. It was as if he completely cut her out. Well, what else could she expect? She did break up with him. Veronica frowned. She really regretted it and now she was paying for it. She wondered what Tim was doing at this moment. Probably doing whatever it is Alvin does, or most likely fighting some sort of ninjas. Ninjas. Last night had been an interesting ninja night. Batman and Whisper had another successful night. They had captured a whole gang of them trying to steal some artifact from some museum. Details were not her specialty, and that was pretty much the reason for Damian's rant as well. The little prick. He was glaring at her now. Everyone else was starting to leave.

"Taylin." Damian walked towards the door, waiting for her to do the same. Veronica took a deep breath.

"Yes, Damian?"

"I suggest you pay attention, if not for me then for the sake of your pitiful job." She rolled her eyes. Oh just what she needed to end her month, the 10 year old brat firing her. Great.

"Whaddaya gonna do? Tell your mommy on me?" Damian glared even more, if that were possible. Veronica regretted saying that as soon as she did.

"My mother is far too busy, but enough with your rambling. You're wasting my time and that is not what I wanted to discuss with you.

His face fell ever so slightly at the mention of his mother. She did feel sorry for him; his parents seemed as if they were never truly there for him. She didn't know why, but she just felt the incredible need to protect and care for Damian once moments like these arose. He actually looked like kid.

"Taylin, you're not bad."

"What?" Veronica was shocked. He actually sort of complimented her. She began to crack a smile. Aw, he actually secretly liked her.

"Wipe that stupid smile off your face, this doesn't change anything." He raised his chin and started towards the elevator.

"You like me…" Veronica began to say in a sing-song voice. Damian cringed inside the elevator.

"Well, I don't hate you. Are you getting in or what?" Veronica hurriedly entered. "There have been some very strange happenings as of lately."

"You mean about the whole lanterns and dead people thing?"

"Yes. It won't be long before we will have to deal with that…"

"Have you ever faced zombies or lanterns before?" Veronica asked curiously, she could never be too sure.

"Not yet, I intend to if necessary. My father has though, I presume my mother as well, and they were of course no match." Damian said smugly.

"That's nice, a zombie-lantern fighting gene."

* * *

Whisper paced along the width of the rooftop. She was so unbelievably bored. She had experienced slow nights, but this was the worst. This was more like a dead night. Veronica took a deep breath. How was this even possible? It was Gotham for fuck's sake, there was supposed to be a murdering spree on every corner, during every hour. It wasn't as if she wanted a murder spree, she just wanted some action!

"Whisper." Veronica breathed a sigh a relief and smiled widely. It was about freaking time.

"_Finally._ So what's up? Robbery, gang fight, mugging? Where?"

"So sorry to disappoint…" Oracle said through the COMM link. Whisper sighed.

"Don't do that to me right now. I'm bored out of my mind and the city's as dead as a cemetery."

"I figured, why don't you head to my place? The birds are here too since it is a slow night, oh and Steph just joined in as well."

"I thought I heard voices…" Veronica smiled.

"Hey Di, what kind of food should we order?" Veronica heard Stephanie's voice faintly.

"You shouldn't have asked that…" It sounded like Helena.

"Just like I like my men, hot, spicy and real tasty!" Yep, that was definitely Black Canary. Veronica could picture Babs rolling her eyes.

"Wasn't she with Green Arrow? Anyway, I'll be right over."

"There's a thing called a door. Now I'm going to have to update my security system." Barbara looked over her shoulder with a spoon in her mouth. Whisper had just entered and was already getting scolded.

"Did Steph use the door?" Veronica slipped her mask off.

"She secretly likes it when we use the window." Stephanie piped in, popping something into her mouth and smiling sheepishly.

"Only when it's Grayson." Dinah joined the teasing. "Hey Veronica, crappy night for crime fighting, huh?

"Oh gosh, worst ever. Hey Helena, Steph!" Veronica set her mask and cape on a chair and plopped down on the couch in between Stephanie and Helena. "Ow."

"Utility belt always comes off first." Steph said. Veronica slipped it off and threw it on the coffee table in front of her.

"So what's for dinner?"

"It's more like breakfast!" Dinah smiled pointing towards the clock; it was already 2 in the morning.

"Well we've got Indian, peanut butter, nutella and ice cream." Barbara said continuing to spoon the peanut butter jar.

"We HAD peanut butter, Babs ate it all!" Stephanie whined. Veronica smiled and grabbed some spiced chicken. They continued teasing, laughing and eating for the rest of the morning.

"What movies do you have, that aren't crappy?" Dinah got up and started looking through Barbara's DVD stack. Babs rolled her eyes yet again.

"Well I've got horror movies.-"Stephanie cut her off.

"Oh come on!"

"Yeah, they kind of lose their purpose after you've met the real monsters." Helena placed her hand on her cheek and opened a bag of chips with her free hand.

"Fine, comedies, chick-flicks…" Barbara's spoon clashed with the plastic end of the peanut butter jar.

"Let's just see what's on TV." Dinah said after looking through the DVDs.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet when you eat." Barbara eyed Veronica who was happily licking away at her spoon full of nutella.

"It's food; there is nothing more holly than thou!" Veronica joked.

"Hand me a spoon, I want some." Helena said setting the chips on the coffee table and reaching for the spoon Steph was handing her.

"But it has my germs all over it, you don't want that." Veronica protested, licking the spoon dramatically.

"Bruce injected us all with a whole bunch of crap; if I'm protected against joker venom then I'm pretty sure I'm protected against you." Helena said swiping the jar away.

"What should we watch?" Dinah said rapidly changing the channels before anyone could even see what was on.

"Why don't you find something hot, spicy and real tasty?" Veronica smirked at Dinah as everyone else laughed.

"I would, but you only like short, handsome and brooding." Dinah teased. Veronica froze. How did they know about Tim?

"You told them?!" Veronica directed her glare at Barbara who raised an eyebrow.

"Oh my gosh, you WERE with the baby bird!" Dinah's eyes widened and she smiled. Stephanie looked confused, Helena turned facing Veronica and Barbara smirked.

"No, but I think you just did." Barbara said. Veronica smacked the palm of her hand on her forehead. Great, now she'd done it.

"Wait, which baby bird are we talking about?" Stephanie asked still confused.

"Who else, Timmy!" Dinah gushed. "Right or Dick?" This time it was Veronica's eyes that widened.

"No! No, no, no, no." Veronica immediately responded.

"Yep, it's Tim." Helena nodded licking her spoon.

"Was." Veronica corrected suddenly very interested in the TV.

"What? OK, spill what the hell happened, did you and the baby bird do the bird dance?" Dinah asked excitedly, she turned the TV off and stared expectantly at Veronica. Stephanie laughed.

"Yeah right, Tim actually getting past first base." Stephanie kept laughing, but stopped once she saw Veronica blushing. "Oh my gosh, you did, didn't you?" Veronica kept blushing even more.

"Look, he was too injured to go to the penthouse and my apartment was closer and he kind of, well." Veronica said quickly, taking the nutella jar back.

"You had sex, and on the first night?" Silence. "So how was it?" Dinah kept smiling. Barbara sighed.

"I really don't want to know." Barbara said.

"How long have you been together? Helena asked.

"I don't know, 6, 7 months." She shrugged. This was the last thing she wanted to discuss.

"Awww! Sweetie! That's going to be one gorgeous baby." Dinah smiled. Veronica nearly choked on her nutella.

"We broke up." Veronica threw the nutella on the table and began to gather her stuff. "Look I'm sorry, I just don't want to talk about this. I'll see you later, thanks for the food."

"Whoa, Veronica!" She heard a voice behind her. Whisper leaped out the window.

* * *

"Dick? Alfred?" Veronica quietly jumped into the penthouse. She broke in through the window, having seen the light on. She was surprised she hadn't been electrocuted.

"Hey." Dick tried giving her a small smile. He was partly in uniform, leaning over the counter and eating a cookie. "Everything OK?"

"I could ask you the same thing…" She said. Dick didn't look so good; he looked even more stressed and tired than usual. He had been like that since Tim left.

"I'll let you bare your soul first."

"I guess I just don't want to be alone tonight." She said sitting on the counter Dick was leaning over.

"Alfred doesn't let us, well me, sit on the counter." Dick said taking another cookie.

"Don't change the subject." Veronica slipped her mask and utility belt off; they weren't the most comfortable accessories. Dick frowned.

"I don't know, I guess everything. Being Batman, Bruce, Tim… How do you think he's doing?" Dick said absentmindedly.

"I think he's physically fine." Veronica whispered, taking a cookie herself. They stayed quiet, it was a comfortable silence. They enjoyed each other's company.

"We should get some sleep; I'll show you the guest room." Dick said after a while of silence. Veronica hopped off the counter and followed Dick down the hallway. He stopped suddenly and quietly opened a door, leaning on the door frame and smiling slightly. Veronica peeked in, it was Damian's room. He looked tiny in the giant bed, all curled up. Veronica couldn't fight the smile forming on her lips.

"He's really something, huh? Dick whispered. "He's really not that bad once he gets to know you, he's a great little brother." Dick looked like a proud parent. Veronica examined Dick's face, and then looked back at Damian's sleeping form.

"I guess if you know how to handle him." She smiled when Damian moaned slightly. "He's just a baby."

"A scared, confused, genetically superior, adorable baby." Dick agreed. They stared at Damian for a few minutes. Dick closed the door as quietly as he could and continued walking down the hall.

"He really likes you. You're the only one, besides me, that he doesn't complain about working with." Dick opened another door and lead Veronica inside.

"How do you do it? I mean, how do you put up with him?" Veronica asked. Dick thought for a moment. He wasn't even sure how he put up with Damian.

"Well, he's my little brother. My little brother who might as well be an orphan. My baby brother that is too much like Bruce. To be perfectly honest, I don't know. I guess I can see right through his act. Above everything he's a child, Veronica. Everyone just seems to forget that." Dick shrugged as he went through one of the drawers. Veronica nodded, deciding to drop the subject. She looked around the room. It was huge.

"Here, they might be a tad too big…" Dick handed Veronica a perfectly folded shirt and sweat pants. Veronica gave him a small smile, taking the clothes and sitting on the corner of the bed.

"Thanks…" She said mindlessly.

"Is everything OK?" Dick could tell there was something on her mind. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Work, that's all." Veronica bit her lip.

"Alright then, whatever you say. Night." Dick walked slowly towards the door.

"Wait, Dick! Well, OK, maybe it's not JUST work." Dick raised an eyebrow and turned back around.

"Well?" He said expectantly at the younger woman. Veronica patted the spot next to her. Chuckling, Dick happily sat next to her. "What's troubling you? Please, share with Dr. Grayson."

"Dr. Grayson…" She mumbled "Do you think he's alright?" Dick sighed. He knew exactly who Veronica was talking about. He was worried sick about Tim as well.

"I hope so." He whispered. "He-he knows, well, we just have to keep telling ourselves that he's so much smarter than us, that he knows what he's doing and that he'll be home very soon." Dick tried his best to smile at Veronica. She still seemed lost in her thoughts. He looked at her, really looked at her for the first time. It was easy to see why Tim liked her so much. She was beautiful, breathtaking even. Her brown eyes sparkled no matter what, and she smiled no matter what. Dick admired that. He admired a lot about her actually. Veronica was a strong, independent woman with so much charisma and had the sense of humor that always had Dick laughing. She was like a breath of fresh air to them, so different from the others. She also had a habit of biting down on her fingers when she was nervous.

"Dick?" Veronica eyed him, nervously. Dick snapped out of trance, embarrassed. He hadn't realized he had been staring. He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. He scooted a bit farther from her.

"Sorry, I- Um, that was creepy. I was NOT checking you out. I was just, well, uh, I was just observing..." She laughed.

"Let's just pretend these last few minutes never happened." Oh, Dick liked her. He could already picture the guest list for her and Tim's wedding. "I guess you're right though, about Tim. I just miss him. You must too, I mean, he's your brother... Brother... Hmm... So does, your other brother have nice place to sleep. Is he alright?" Dick gave her a weird look. Other brother? He only had Tim, Damian, and well Jason. Why would Veronica want to know about Jason's well-being?

"I'm not sure; I'm not for prison visits."

"He's in prison!"

"No! Well I don't know, maybe he was. If he was he probably broke out by now though. Why the sudden interest in Jason?"

"Just curious…" Dick let it slide. He was tired and didn't want to press.

After a long moment of silence (with Dick staring at the carpet) Veronica looked at him with an expression Dick had never seen before.

"Dick, you know how people have been talking about the strange happenings?" Dick froze, he didn't like where this was going. "Umm, I don't know how to say this. I feel stupid, and you're probably going to think I'm a big baby… And I don't want to disappoint you…" She started to ramble.

"Veronica, what is it?" She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.

"Dick I'm scared. I don't know what it's about, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm scared. I don't want to face it."

"Wow…" Dick didn't know how to respond. He had never heard anyone tell him anything like this before. He wasn't disappointed, quite the opposite. Dick smiled at her.

"Hey, first of all," he took her hands in his, "I could never be disappointed of you. It takes a big person to admit that they're scared. We're human, Veronica, we have fears. Actually, I think you're the first person brave enough to admit it. Everyone around here is too damn stubborn and proud to ever admit to it. Anyway, that's beside the point. What I'm trying to say is: It's OK to be scared and you don't have to fight this if you don't want to." Veronica looked up at him, thinking. "Everything is going to be fine." Dick reassured her. This was really troubling her.

Dick felt himself being crushed by a sudden hug. He laughed and hugged her back. She was so small.

"Thanks, you're the best. Can you promise me one thing though?" She said, not letting go.

"Anything."

"Promise me that you and Damian, and everyone else involved, will come back home safe and sound." Dick pulled back, holding her hands again.

"I, Richard Grayson, formerly Robin, the boy wonder and Nightwing, give you, Veronica Taylin slash Whisper a Batman promise." Dick raised his left hand, trying look serious. They both laughed. Dick stood up, seeing how calm she now seemed.

"A Batman promise?"

"It's like a regular promise, but just more brooding involved."

"Good." Veronica simply said. Dick bent down to kiss the top of her head.

"Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!" He said before exiting the room.

Veronica smiled to herself. Dick Grayson really was the best person ever. She proceeded to change into the oversized clothing. She wandered towards the window and looked at Gotham City in all its glory. She made a mental note of having more talks with Dick, and to apologize to the girls tomorrow. In the midst of her thoughts a red, glowing neon sign caught her attention. "Red Robin" it read. She laughed.

"Goodnight, Timmy, wherever it is you are." She whispered, finally slipping into the covers.


End file.
